Shake It Out
by I Am District 12's Diamond
Summary: A boy meets a girl. Sounds simple, doesn't it?
1. Chapter 1

**Shake It Out**

A boy meets a girl. Sounds simple, doesn't it?

The seven-year-old girl sits in the meadow, alone. Her father is at work in the mines, and her mother is watching her three-year-old sister, Primrose. But the girl just calls her Prim. Katniss, is the girl's name. Her brown hair is in a side braid, how her mother ties it up for her. Her eyes are a steel grey, but there is always something lurking behind them. A dwindling flame, just building up, but when she wants it to, it can burn down everything in her path.

You see, she isn't a normal seven-year-old girl. She started hunting last year, as soon as she was strong enough to hold a bow and arrow. Her father says she is a natural, and she's proud of that. Her father's opinion is the opinion that matters most to her. She fiddles with a dandelion in her small hands, keeping her mind occupied. She wants to go into the woods. But she doesn't want to go in without her father, watching her, by her side. Just his presence makes her feel safe.

She hums a tune to a lullaby that she loves her father to sing. Actually, she really doesn't care what he sings, she just loves to hear his voice because when he sings, all the birds nearby fall completely silent.

Suddenly, a shadow comes over her. She looks up. She sees an eight-year-old boy, with spiky blond hair, and blue eyes like none she has ever seen in town.

The eight-year-old boy sits in front of the pretty girl. The boy think she's pretty. The girl looks at him and shrugs, then continues fiddling with the dandelion in her hands. The boy looks at her, with curiosity swimming in his ice-blue eyes. The boy's name is Cato. He and his family just moved to District 12, and he wants to make some friends here. And he wants her to be one of them.

He doesn't know why, or what draws him to the girl sitting the meadow, but he won't question it.

"Hey." He says.

"Hi." She looks up at him with a small smile, which he returns.

"What's your name?" He asks, fiddling with the grass around him. He likes to keep his hands busy, that's why he usually ties knots. But he left his rope at his new home, so unfortunately, he will just have to settle for fiddling and twisting the green grass around him.

She pauses, then smiles. The boy likes her smile. "Katniss."

"That's a nice name. I'm Cato." He smiles back at her.

Katniss thinks about something then asks, "Where did you come from?" She has a questioning look on her face. "You don't look like you're from town." She tilts her head slightly, waiting for an answer.

"District 2." He replies, with his eyes on her.

"Do you live here now? Why?" She asks, with what a child her age always has. Curiosity.

"Yes. My family moved here, because they didn't want me and my brother and sister to be trained, and sent into the Academy." He explains. It's true. Probably one of the only families in District 2 that didn't want their children to be trained to fight to the death with twenty-three other children, in an arena on television.

"Trained? They didn't want to train you for what?"

He lets out a puff of air. "My parents didn't want me or my brother and sister to be trained for the Hunger Games."

"Oh." Is all she manages. "That's good." She ends with a sweet smile.

She begins humming, to a song he hasn't heard before, but he thinks it sounds nice. Some of the birds stop chirping, just to hear her humming.

"Where do you live?" Cato asks, watching her blow a dandelion in the direction that the wind was.

"The Seam." She says. "You must live in Town." He nods, and she smiles. This feels, different to him. He didn't really have a friend that was a girl in District 2. Apart from a girl called Clove who was probably too excited to be going into Academy.

"How old are you?" He questions, listening to some of the birds chirp in the trees in the woods.

"Seven. How old are you?" She says, happily.

"Eight." He responds.

They end up staying their all afternoon, talking about nothing and everything. She tells him about her three-year-old sister, Primrose, who she tells him that she just calls her Prim. He tells her about his six-year-old sister, Dabria, and his four-year-old brother, Nuri. When she asks, he tells her what life is like back in District 2.

She tells him what it's like here. She tells him that, you can go hungry, if you can't provide. She tells him about her skill with archery and hunting animals. And he tells her about his skills with swords, and he also mentions that's he's been hunting with it a few times. He adds that he brought his sword here, too. She tells him that it's easier to go hunting in the woods surrounding District 12, with the hole in the fence with no electricity running through it, and the laided back peacekeepers.

When she talks about her father, he notices something in her eyes. Admiration. She really looks up to her father, and must care a great deal about him. She tells Cato that he was the one who taught her how to hunt. He's the one who feeds and takes care of her family. She also mentions that he sings, and she says it's one of the most beautiful things she has ever heard. She says that when he does sing, all of the birds fall silent.

They lie down on the grass and she starts sticking dandelions in his hair. He doesn't take them out, though, he raises an eyebrow at her and she giggles in return. He takes one out of his hair and places it in her braid. He drops four on her head then says, "flower attack!" And she just bursts out laughing. Fits of giggles, more like. He stands and helps her up.

"I have to go now." He says.

"I think I do, too."

He puts his hand out. "Friends?"

Instead of shaking his hand, she hugs him, and smiles. "Friends."

"I'll see you here sometime, maybe?" He almost requests, with a smirk when she pulls back.

"Yeah!" She turns on her heels and skips on her feet, on her way to the Seam. To her small home. But her home, nonetheless.

He watches her skip away, until she is out of sight, and begins his walk to his home in town. He enters his home, and his sister bombards him with questions. What were you doing? Where did you go? Why were you out so long?

He sighs. "I made a new friend." His sister hops around with excitement. This is what he likes about his sister, she always loves the little things in life, no matter how small.

"What's their name?" Dabria exclaims, shaking his arm, with an ear-splitting grin on her face.

"Her name's Katniss." He gets more and more questions from his little blonde sister, and he can't help but smile, as he thinks about the day.

A boy meets a girl. That's how it all starts.


	2. Chapter 2

**Shake It Out**

**Chapter 2: A Nice Way To Run Into Her Father **

The seven-year-old girl is in the woods, hunting with her father. These are the moments in which she is happiest. When he is around, she is in some of her best spirits. He brings out the good side of her, just like her friend, Cato. Cato, the blond boy from District 2, she met three months ago. She acts like a child around him, she isn't exactly serious with him. Her mother and father still don't know about him, her friend. They are always asking questions when she leaves the house every few days to meet up with him.

Katniss always shrugs off their questions, and just says she's taking a walk, but she's starting to see that they don't believe that.

Her father is testing her, to see if she remembers the difference between the edible berries and the poisonous ones. She knows which ones are which. Her father smiles down at his little girl as she stands proudly, looking up at him with fire in her eyes. He hands Katniss her bow and takes a single arrow out of his quiver for her. He points at a squirrel facing them in, up in far tree. She smiles, then gets into the proper stance, the arrow in place, then lets it fly. It whizzes through the air and shoots into the creature's eye.

It doesn't have time to scream out in pain. It's already dead. It falls from the tree and lands on the ground with a 'thump.' Her father pats his daughter on the back, then goes to retrieve her catch. Katniss is happy, her father is here, and he is proud of her. He strides back over to her, holding the dead squirrel by it's tail in one hand, and the arrow that ended it's life in the other.

"Do you want to carry it or do you want me to put it in the game bag?" He asks, holding it.

She nods. "A good hunter always carries their game."

He smiles widely, at his daughter. "That's my girl."

He hands her the squirrel and she hooks it to her belt by it's tail. "C'mon. Let's see if we can find some more hiding."

Katniss nods happily, and they walk through the woods silently, light on their feet. She thinks that her father could be the best father ever. He cares, he loves her and Prim very much, he takes her hunting, and still has a job in the mines to support them. All of the things he does, is for his family. He is very grateful for what life has given him. A beautiful wife, and two pretty little girls for daughters. He has truly been blessed.

They have already caught three squirrels, four rabbits and have collected some berries.

Katniss' father freezes suddenly. He hears something, something that sounds like slashing. Katniss bumps into his back and stumbles backwards, falling on her backside. Her father turns quickly, and picks her up to her feet. She drags her to the nearby bushes, to slowly approach the area where the noise in coming from. Katniss hears the noise too, and her hunting instincts kick in. They are light on their feet, and no noise can be picked up coming from them.

The noise is becoming much more clearer, as Katniss and her father walk further through the forest. They reach a big bush, and crawl behind it, peeking over it to see the cause of the noise. The noise is the sound of sharp metal slicing against the bark of a tree. And Katniss is only a little surprised at what she sees. It seems that a familiar blond boy must have gotten bored and came into the woods to do some type of training with his sword.

She smiles a little, then looks over at her father who has a look of confusion on his face, at Cato. Katniss places her weapon down and stands up. Her father tries to get her to sit down again but she won't so he stands with her, watching his daughter curiously.

"Hey Cato!" She exclaims, knocking him out of focus.

He quickly turns his head towards her and he grins. "Oh, hey Katniss. Fancy seeing you here?"

She smirks back at him, and his eyes flick over to the man standing next to Katniss. He looks similar, the exact same shade of brown hair, and steel eyes like hers. There isn't fire in them, though. Not like Katniss' eyes do. Cato grasps his sword, tightly, in his hand. He isn't in any real danger, he just, needs to keep his hands busy.

The man looks at her, a stern expression on his face. "Katniss, who is this?" He raises an eyebrow at her.

"Um..." She bites her bottom lip. "Uh. This is Cato. A friend." She gestures towards Cato, and smiles at him. "Cato, this is my dad."

Cato nods at her father. "Nice to meet you, Mr. Everdeen."

Her father nods back. "Nice to meet you, Cato." He seems to be thinking about something. Then realization sets in. "You and your family moved here from District 2, didn't you?" Cato nods, looking slightly worried. _He isn't going to judge you._

Mr. Everdeen smiles. "Because your parents didn't want to train you for the games." Cato smile back at him.

"Yes. You have to train there, so we moved here. I like it here, already." Cato says, smile on his face.

Mr Everdeen's smile turns to a stern look, once more. "So, Cato. How exactly do you know my daughter?" He questioned, one eyebrow raised.

"We're friends. I talked to her in the meadow, about three months ago. That's how we met." Katniss sits down on the forest floor, and Cato sits down next to her.

Mr. Everdeen kneels down in front of him and and nods and turns to Katniss. "Why didn't you tell me about him? Is that why you have been leaving the house most of the time?"

"I don't know why I didn't tell you. And yes, that's why I've been leaving the house." She looks down, not lifting her head.

"You should have told me." Katniss nods and stands, and Cato stands.

Cato starts. "Well I have to go get questioned by Dabria. See you later!" He walks away, hiding his sword in a long holder that is sewed on to his pants leg.

He walks to the fence then crawls under as Mr. Everdeen and his daughter have a conversation.

"Who's Dabria?" Her father asks, getting to his feet, and picking up Katniss' bow.

"His six-year-old sister. He has a brother who's four called Nuri." She smiles at him and he nods.

"C'mon. Lets go to the Hob, then home." She nods, and they hide their bow and arrows. She leads the way back to the fence surrounding District 12.

Cato makes his way thought the Town, and walks to his house. He gets a glare from the baker's son as he passes, and Cato doesn't know why. _Maybe he just doesn't like you. Yeah, probably because you're from District 2_. Cato arrives home, with not only Dabria questioning him, but Nuri seems keen to, as well. He puts his sword in the small room he shares with Nuri, and waits there for the questioning to begin.

"Where did you go?" Nuri is bouncing, with his small voice dancing through the air.

"The woods." Cato sits down, on a the scruffy mattress.

"What did you do?" Dabria chimes in, sitting on the bed next to Cato.

"Practiced, getting better hits. I ran into Katniss and her dad."

"You did? You did? What happened?" Nuri sits down on the other side of Cato, basically jumping up and down.

Cato chuckles. "We had a talk. People do that you know." He ruffles his brother's shaggy blonde hair.

"What does Katniss look like?" Dabria asks, with wide, pleading eyes.

Cato never told them what she looked like? He remembers he talks about her, but he never once mentioned what she looked like. He thought he would have told his siblings something like that, but apparently he did not.

"She has long brown hair, which she normally has in a side braid. She has olive skin that goes together with her steel grey eyes. Her eyes always have fire in them, though. Always burning on." He mumbles the last sentence, but his siblings still hear him.

"She sounds beautiful." Dabria says softly.

Cato nods. "She is."

Katniss and her father return from the Hob with some soup, and two of the rabbits they caught. Their family will have full stomachs tonight. They walk closely together on their way back to their home in the Seam.

They arrive home and Prim is giggling when they walk in. She turns her head. "Daddy! Katniss!" She runs over to her father and hugs his legs and he picks her up.

"We're going to have full bellies tonight!" Katniss exclaims, handing the soup in a tub, and the two rabbits to her mother, who excepts them and gets to work on making dinner.

They eat their dinner that afternoon, and enjoy every single bit of it. Katniss' mother is smiling at her, she's proud of her eldest daughter. Katniss smiles back, and soon it is beginning to get late, so they all decide to get some rest.

Katniss has a peaceful sleep filled with her family and her friend Cato. Cato also has a peaceful sleep, but his dreams are filled with one thing and one thing only:

The girl with the fire burning in her steel grey eyes, Katniss Everdeen.

* * *

**Did you like it? I liked it. Thanks to everyone who took time from their lives to read and fangirl over this story. And thanks for the reviews and the favs. I might not be able to update as fast as this one. At the most it will be a week. I get classes and stuff, and I have moments, mostly blonde moments. I'll try and update in the next couple of days, thanks for reading! **


	3. Chapter 3

**Shake It out **

**Chapter 3: What brought them closer without them knowing**

The nine-year-old boy is in the woods, in the afternoon, and he helps the eight-year-old handle the heavy sword. See, they made a deal. Katniss would teach Cato how to use a bow and arrow, and he would teach her how to handle and use a sword. Cato thinks it's fair, but Katniss might need a bit more convincing. The sword, is heavy for Katniss, and she really doesn't know how Cato can swing it without breaking a sweat. He places the sword in her hands, and puts her

into a manageable stance, so that she won't fall over from not being equally balanced with the sword. He stands back, and smiles at her. It seems that she's putting all of her strength into holding the sword up. He sighs. _This might take a while_, he thinks. He looks at the trees around them, and notices that there are few that are close together. Good, she won't hit one then run into another, he thinks. He simply points to a tree not a meter away from Katniss, and uses his other hand to gesture towards the sword in her hands.

She quickly nods, and breathes out loudly, before giving it a go. She lifts the sword, turns slightly to the left, and takes a swing at the tree. The girl is stronger than she looks, a lot stronger actually, because she manages to get the sword's sharp blade lodged into the thick bark of the tree. Once it's there she attempts to yank it out, but all she does is stumble backwards, only to be stopped from falling to the ground by Cato catching her.

She stands up straight, and he's smirking at her. "I think you need more practice."

She huffs. "I know I do. But I did better than I did yesterday, didn't I?" She flutters her eyelashes at him.

He chuckles and says, "Yeah, I guess you did." He contemplates something, then asks, "Do you want to try again?"

She sighs, a frustrated sigh. "Fine." He grins.

He walks over to his sword, which is currently a quarter of the way through the tree, and yanks it out, no problems at all. He heres her huff behind him and he rolls his eyes. She'll never change. He walks over to her, and she is already in an exceptional stance, and he places the sword in her hands once again. She doesn't seem to be struggling as much, which is good, and he would be lying if he said he wasn't even slightly proud of her. She is about to take a swipe at the tree she hit earlier, but he suddenly stops her.

"No. Try another tree. And don't cut through it, just use the tip of the blade to go across the surface." He points to another tree, more sturdy than the last, and she nods in agreement.

She steps back, and swipes the tip of the blade across the tree's trunk. She does this six seven more times, but by then her arms are giving out on her. She drops the sword on the floor, in front of Cato, and he smiles. Smiles; he doesn't smirk, he doesn't grin like he has come to do a lot around her, but he smiles. She softly smiles back at him, and walks by him as he retrieves his sword from the dark, forest floor.

He places his weapon in it's brown holder and makes sure it's tight around his waste. He owns two holders for his sword; one that goes over his shoulder and across his back and chest, and this one that is tight around his waist.

He turns around, and sees her jogging off towards something or somewhere. He shakes his head then begins to jog after her. His legs are quite a bit longer than hers, so it doesn't take long for him to be jogging by her side. She slows down and stops at a familiar place. She grabs her bow and a quiver filled with arrows from a nook in a fallen tree, then strides towards him.

"Here." She hands the bow into his hand, and shoves an arrow into his other.

"It's time you learned something." There's an incredibly small hole in a tree far away that he can just make out. He turns to her, an eyebrow raised at her. She tilts her head.

"When you hit that, you get something. And I'm not going to tell you what."

"You want me to try and hit it now?"

Katniss shakes her head in response. "No. I want you to get near it."

"Um..." He pauses, thoroughly confused. She starts. "You have no idea how to use it, do you?" He stares blankly, then shakes is head, slightly embarrassed.

"Okay... Hold the wooden part of the bow with your right hand just below the middle, the notch." He does as told, then she continues. "Uh, hold the end of the arrow, not the end with the arrow head, between these two fingers." She holds out her index and middle finger to show him which ones. He does that, so she keeps going. "Place the arrow in the notch, still holding the end, and put it on this finger." She points to his index finger. "Pull the arrow back, aim at that tree, and fire."

He does, and the arrow hits the tree, but five inches lower than the small hole in it. He sighs. "Maybe I'm the one who needs the practice. I've got the worst aim."

He lowers the bow and sighs. She give Cato a sweet smile. "You'll get better. I could get my daddy to teach you."

"I don't think he likes me." He mumbles, looking down at his feet.

"You've only really talked to him once. He'll like you." Katniss reassures.

"How do you know he will?" He asks, looking up from the ground.

"Because he's a lot like me. And I like you." She smiles at him, and he smiles back.

They're friends, but they both think of each other as their best friend, not just their friend. He is her only true friend, outside of her family. And she is his only real friend. They're just as innocent as any other, though. They may be just children, but they know how to use weapons. No innocent child knows how to use a weapon, no matter how big or small it is. They act innocent, though.

Their personalities basically scream innocent. But what they can do, it turns them into children who are prepared for reaping. And no child in District 12 is prepared for the reaping. Only children in District 4 sometimes, District 1, and District 2 are. Career believe it's an honor to kill other children. It's not. It's cruel, and sick, and the Careers that win the games soon realize that it is no honor; it is a curse. Something being programmed into these children to make them think their only goal in life is to volunteer for the games, and win bringing pride to their District with them.

That is why Cato's family moved to District 12. His parents didn't want their children to think like that. That killing other children - children as young as twelve - was something to be proud of. Because everyone apart from the Career Districts know it isn't. And the children trained, will never know that it's bad.

Cato has three years until his name is in the reaping bowl. Katniss has four. Cato tries not to think about it.

"I'll teach you some more." Katniss says to him.

"Then what are we waiting for?" He exclaims happily.

They spend the rest of the afternoon improving their new skills. Cato becomes better at archery, and Katniss is really starting to get a hang of handling the sword. With each others help, of course. It's a peaceful day, and they enjoy it. Katniss started coming to the woods without her father not long ago, because Cato was there to watch over her. And he is just as good as making sure that she is safe as her father is. They sit next to to the tree Cato was shooting in the fading sun for some time, enjoying the cool breeze that swoops by every now and then.

"Katniss? Do you have a knife?" She pulls out a small blade from the back of her belt and hands it to him.

He nods in thanks, then stands to carve something into the tree. Katniss listens to the sound of metal scraping off wood and when she can no longer hear it, she stands to see what Cato has carved into this tree.

She looks at it, and a soft smile goes on her face. Carved into the tree, are the words:

_Katniss and Cato. Best friends forever and on._

He smirks at her and she just rolls her eyes at him.

"C'mon. It's getting late." He hands the knife back to her and she tucks it back into her belt.

They walk to where she stores her bow and arrows, and she shoves them quickly into their hiding place. They walk to the fence surrounding District 12 in a comfortable silence. Once they reach it, Katniss goes under first, then Cato soon follows. They stand in the meadow near the fence, taking a moment to see everything before they return home. They do it every time they come here, so why stop a tradition?

"I'll see you later, Katniss." He says with a smile.

"Bye Cato." She leans up and pecks his cheek.

She scurries off to her Seam house, excited to see her family. She doesn't know why she's so happy, but she isn't complaining.

Cato stands there, in the meadow, slightly confused by what just happened. She just kissed him on the cheek, he knew that. But his question was, why? Why did she? He thinks he might be reading into it too much, but he is sure that he doesn't care.

His cheek is tingling, and is slightly warm.

His hand is on the cheek Katniss kissed, and he can't seem to move it. He doesn't want to move it. He's afraid that if he doesn't hold onto it, he'll forget about it, and that's one thing he is positive that he never wants to do. He begins to walk home, and it seems like it happens most of time, it always repeats it's self. He sees the baker's son, who's Katniss' age, and he glares at Cato. And Cato, like normal, still has no idea why.

After the questioning he receives from his siblings and after dinner, he finds himself tired. He climbs into bed and begins to go into the sweet abyss of sleep.

When he wakes up in the morning, his cheek is still tingling.

* * *

**I'm not really happy with that ending, but I think it's alright, at least. I'm still debating if I s****hould put thhem in t****he games. I kind of want to, but it always ends the same way, and mine would be no exception. I'll have time jumps, like not simple day after day, because that would take too long, and I just don't have it in me to write that much. **

**So this story will probably turn into fluffy crap, but who cares? IT'S CATO AND KATNISS, FOR CHRIST SAKES! THEY'RE AMAZING TOGETHER!**

**Ahem, well I hope you enjoyed and fangirled over this chapter. REVIEW PLEASE!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Shake It Out **

**Chapter 4: A meeting with Bakerboy**

The nine-year-old boy sits in the meadow, tying knots with a length of rope, waiting for his friend. It's been two weeks since she kissed him on the cheek, and he still doesn't know what to make of it.

He was actually thinking about changing the carving on the tree to:

_Katniss and Cato. Best friends forever and on. And maybe something more. _

He's been feeling weird towards her, and he doesn't always know why. Like when she smiles at him, he suddenly gets warm inside. Or if she hugs him, he feels fluffy. Well, obviously not literally fluffy, but it's just confusing to him. He thinks, well he doesn't know what he thinks, he just believes that he's kind of weird. At least, he's still sane. Maybe.

As of this day, he really doesn't know what he's going to do. Even though Cato and his family live in town, his father got a job in the mines. He isn't exactly a miner, he mines as well on occasions, but he takes the canary down to check that the air isn't poisonous. Cato worries about him, every time he goes to work in the mines, but his dad tells him it will be alright. That he'll be okay. And he has been so far, so Cato trusts him and his father tries hard to keep his word.

He wonders if Katniss worries about her father. She might, but if she does, she hides it incredibly well. He thinks her father is a very brave and honorable man, risking his life every day to make sure that his family has enough money to get through the day. Cato can say that he looks up to Mr. Everdeen as much as he looks up to his own father. And he likes Katniss' father, probably because of how similar they are. They are alike.

Cato is suddenly covered by darkness, more precisely, someone's shadow. He looks up, with a smile on his face, expecting to see his friend. Katniss. Oh, but it is not Katniss. It is the boy Katniss' age, with the shaggy blond hair, and the boy who constantly sends Cato glares every time he passes his bakery. It's the baker's son. Cato doesn't know his name, and he's pretty sure this boy doesn't know his name, either.

He isn't glaring at Cato, but his expression isn't soft nor friendly. He sits down about a meter away, and in front, of him. Cato doesn't why this boy is here or what he wants with him, but he's not sure he really cares right at this particular moment. Cato feels the sword on his back, which the boy in front of him cannot see. That's one thing that keeps Cato calm. He is tying knots with the piece of rope he brought with him.

The boy clears his throat, "I'm Peeta."

Cato glances up from the rope, and says, "My pleasure. Cato."

Peeta nods and looks around, like he's expecting something, or someone. Cato still doesn't know why he's here, though. He just wishes that Katniss came here earlier so he wouldn't be forced to talk to Bakerboy. Cato sighs and looks up at the boy in front of him. Cato doesn't do well with people he doesn't know, especially ones who spend a lot of their time glaring at him. _Okay,_ he thinks. _Might as well get it over with. _

"What do you want?" Cato asks, a little more harsh than intended.

"I-" Peeta starts but doesn't finish. At least not straight away. Silence falls upon the two for quite some time.

Until Peeta speaks up. "Do you know Katniss Everdeen?" The question confuses Cato. On the other hand, a lot have been confusing Cato lately. How would this boy know Katniss? She never mentioned him to him, so does she even know him? He doesn't know.

"Yes, she's my best friend. Why?"

"I'm just curious..." He mumbles, scratching the back of his head.

Cato is getting bored with tying knots, so he takes a knife he got, from his belt and decides to polish it. It's already sharp, so he's not going to waste time sharpening it. He grabs a cloth from his front pocket, and cleans up the knife. When Cato took out his knife, Peeta's eyes basically bulged out his head, thinking that this boy would threaten him or something. He was surprised - relieved when the older boy took out a cloth and began cleaning it up.

Peeta thinks about all of the thinks he actually knows about the boy in front of him. He heard that he used to live in District 2, but he doesn't know why they moved. He knows that he lives in Town, because he passes the bakery every time he walks home. He knows Katniss. He must be a hunter, like Katniss and her father, with his knives, ropes, and whatever is on his back. Peeta thinks that it might be a sword. And he's Katniss' best friend. He wonders how they became friends, how they met. Peeta decides he can ask sometime later.

"Why do you always glare at me? Give me the evil eye?" Cato asks, sending Peeta tumbling out of his thoughts.

"What?"

"When I walk home from here, you always look at me like you hate me - like you want me dead." Cato spits the last words, looking up from his knife.

Why _does_ he do that? Peeta doesn't know why, he has something against Cato, and he doesn't know what. It might be because he's in love with Katniss and he could be jealous of Cato just being friends with her. That's probably the reason, but he's not going to tell Cato that.

"Um... I-" Before Peeta can think of anything, Cato cuts him off.

"It's because I'm from District 2, isn't it?" Peeta doesn't nod, but he looks down at the grass below him. "Me and my family aren't the same as the people who live there."

Peeta pauses, raising his head. "Why did you and your family move here? I would have thought you would be training for your precious games."

"For a matter of fact, we moved here because we didn't want to train. I don't want to, my five-year-old brother-Nuri doesn't want to, and my seven-year-old sister-Dabria doesn't want to. We don't think that killing children is something to be proud of. That's why we moved here. It was my parents idea, and I'm thankful for it every second. You can only hide your children from the Academy for a small amount of time."

Peeta is shocked by his words. He never thought he would here someone from District 2 complain about the Hunger Games. Something that, in District 2, is supposed to be in them; to think the Hunger Games are something to take pride in, to win.

"Sorry, I guess I didn't know..."

"Yeah, I guess you didn't." Cato spits, shoving his knife back into it's belt. Cato glances behind Peeta, and smiles. _Here she comes to stop me from hitting him,_ Cato thinks. Katniss Everdeen, in all her glory, skips towards him. She stops, when she reaches him and gives him a soft smile.

"Are you ready?" She chirps, happily.

Cato nods, and stands. "Yeah, we can go."

She smiles then turns to see Peeta sitting down on the grass. Cato looks into her eyes, as if to say _'not too long, okay?'_ and she nods. "You're the baker's son, aren't you? Peeta, is it?"

"Yeah. You're Katniss." He stands and puts his hand out. She shakes his hand, and Cato is slightly relieved by the fact that she didn't hug him.

"I'll see you later." She grabs Cato's hand and pulls him away with her, towards the fence. Katniss knows Peeta won't tell anyone. He's too nice.

Peeta stares longingly at Katniss and Cato striding towards the fence, and he wishes he was in Cato's position. He never will be, though. So all he asks is for her to be happy, and if Cato makes her happy, he won't object.

She is happy around Cato. He's seen her normally, at school, without Cato, and she just looks normal. But when she looks at Cato, Peeta notices something, a twinkle in her eyes, something that is reserved only for Cato, and Cato only. And Peeta saw the way Cato looked at her. Hidden love, because she doesn't know that Cato loves her just the same as she doesn't know that Peeta loves her. Peeta thinks that Cato doesn't even know he loves her, but it's clearer than day.

Peeta sighs, and walks home to his bakery. Katniss and Cato walk through the woods and spend every minute trying to have fun-trying to enjoy themselves. Maybe they'll find out how they feel about each other, and they'll end up falling for each other.

But unfortunately, life isn't that simple.

* * *

**I know, it isn't a Catoniss chapter, set me on fire if you want. I kind of wanted Cato to have to talk to Peeta, and I thought now would have been a good as time as any. **

**Also, I'm sorry if it isn't that good, I got tired today, I had to deal with people I hate, and I had blonde moments, so many blonde moments...**

**I might not be able to update tomorrow, but I will get one at least by my Thursday/Hellday. Anyway, I hope you liked this chapter. PLEASE REVIEW!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Shake It Out**

**Chapter 5: His siblings**

The nine-year-old girl knocks on the door of the Town house, a soft smile plastered to her face. The Seam girl has came to visit her best friend who lives in Town. Cato Taylor, her male, ten-year-old, blond, best friend. She hasn't seem him in a while, and she doesn't know why. Well, she does, but it's not really a reason. It was reaping three weeks ago, and family tends to feel a lot closer at this time, praying to save one of the lives of the unlucky souls that got picked.

She'll admit it, she does miss him. It's strange not seeing him every few days, like she normally does. She sees him at least three times a week. At the least. Katniss wonders if he misses her. Maybe not as much as she misses him, but he undoubtedly misses her. He said that it hurt him, but he was being sarcastic at the time. Well, she thinks he was being sarcastic, but Cato knows better.

A blonde girl slightly shorter than Katniss, that looks about eight-years-old, comes to the door with a dazzling smile on her face. Her eyes are similar to Cato's, but her eyes are blue like the sea, his are blue like ice. Her blonde hair is dark, long, and flows far past her shoulders. She has a look of recognition in her eyes, though, Katniss has never met this girl before. Cato might have mentioned her to his blonde sister. Katniss thinks Cato told her once that her name was Dabria.

"You're Katniss, right?" The blonde smiles widely, as the brunette nods in response.

"Oh, I'm Dabria, Cato's sister. Cato's here. Do you want to come in?" Dabria asks, and Katniss smiles and nods. One thing Katniss realizes about Dabria, is that she speaks really fast. It's so fast that it gets difficult to understand whatever she says.

She leads Katniss into the Town house and sees that people that live in Town aren't as well off as she thought. The walls look slightly damp, and the rooms feel cramped. The floor is hard, and cold, nothing she would have expected ex-District 2 residents to be living in.

"My mother and father aren't here. My dad's in the mines, and my mom's trying to see if she can buy some food." Dabria explains, pointing to a small chair, for Katniss to sit. A small blond boy, that looks to be six-years-old, with shaggy blond hair, enters the small room. He notices his sister, then sees Katniss and a familiar look of recognition appears in his eyes. The same look of recognition that was in his older sister's eyes.

Katniss remembers that Cato had also once told her what his little brother's name was. She believes it is Nuri.

"Nuri, this is Katniss. Katniss, this is my little brother, Nuri." He flashes her a smile, and looks to be trying to hold himself down from jumping up and down with excitement.

"Cato's talked about you. A lot." Nuri says, strolling over to her, grin plastered on his young face.

"He has?" Katniss, asks, shocked. She knew he had told them about her, but she didn't that he talked about her a lot. It doesn't really sound like Cato, speaking nicely of someone, a lot. He only seems to talk about people for a long period time if they confuse him or if he loves them.

"Uh-huh. He likes you." Nuri replies, jumping slightly at one point.

"Oh." Is all Katniss manages.

Dabria sits down on the cold floor, and Katniss offers her the chair, but she shakes it off, saying that the guest can sit on the chair. Nuri sits next to her, and his smile is still wide and bright. She thinks that maybe he and Prim could be friends. Always happy, similar age. They could be friends.

"Where do you live?" Nuri asks, curiously.

Katniss responds, "The Seam."

They nod and Dabria asks, "Do you have any brothers of sisters?"

"Um, yeah. I have a five-year-old sister, Primrose. But I just call her Prim."

They smile widely, then Nuri asks, "What does she look like?" Curiosity flooding his river blue eyes.

Katniss honestly can say that she thinks Prim is beautiful. "Well, she doesn't look like me. She looks like my mom. She has light blond hair, and bright blue eyes, as blue as yours."

Dabria thinks something over, then asks, "How? I thought people in the Seam had dark hair and grey eyes."

"My mother was from Town, and my father is from the Seam. She looks like my mother, and I look like my father." She finishes with a smile.

Katniss now understands what Cato meant when he always said he was going home to be question my his younger siblings. They seem to always have an awful lot to say, about, well, anything really. But the young brunette doesn't mind, she actually likes that part of their personality. They're really curious.

"Do you hunt?" Dabria questions.

"Um-"

She's cut off by Nuri. "Cato said he hunted with you, is that true?"

"Uh, yeah." Katniss answers.

"What do you use? Cato has knives and a sword." Nuri states, excitedly.

"Well, I use a bow and arrow. I taught Cato how to use it. Kind of."

"Kind of?"

"He isn't that bad. But he still isn't as good as me."

Dabria and Nuri giggle a little, at Katniss' comment. Katniss smirks at the young children. She does like them, but they're not exactly like Cato. They're sweet, like Cato is, but he isn't as openly curious as they are. Cato doesn't ask a lot of questions, especially not as quickly as his two younger siblings.

"How did you learn how to hunt?" Dabria asks.

"My father taught me. He wanted me to learn." She was very eager to learn, as well.

Katniss pauses, before speaking. "How did Cato learn how to use a sword?"

Dabria replies, "Our dad taught him. Because he thought he would end up going to the Academy."

Katniss was slightly surprised that Cato's father thought Cato would end up going to the Academy. On the other hand, children in District 2 are forced to go to the Academy, to learn how to kill, to train to kill children in an arena. The ones who don't volunteer end up in the mines, the quarries, or the more common option, is becoming a peacekeeper. Katniss is continuously confused by what, and everything District 2 does. They make weapons, they train their children to kill, and attempt to turn their children into unstoppable killing machines.

But at least the Taylor family knew differently. That it was best to leave District 2 before their children were trained and taught in the art of murder.

"When did you get here?" Katniss hears that familiar voice and smiles.

She turns her head to see Cato entering the room, a small smile sprawled across his face.

"Hey." She says.

"I see you met Dabria and Nuri." Katniss nods, and Cato grins.

Nuri and Dabria glance at each other, before standing up at the same time, and leaving the small room, to let Cato and Katniss have some peaceful alone time together. Katniss gets off of the seat and sits on the floor, back against the wall, when Cato also sits on the rock hard floor beside her.

"They didn't question you, did they?" He asks, eyebrows raised.

Katniss smirks at him. "Oh, they did. But I was okay with it. I didn't mind it."

"I haven't seen you in a few weeks. It got boring." Cato says, then sighs. She looks at him, and thinks he really did miss her.

She bites her bottom lip. Cato thinks she looks cute. "I know."

Katniss hesitates, before bringing him into a hug. His arms instantly wrap around her, holding her close. They pull apart and she places her head on his chest, as he slides down against the wall, his back not completely against the wall.

He has an arm around her, and sighs. He looks to see her eyes closed. He believes she is the most beautiful thing he has ever seen. He wonders what goes on in her head. He's just curious, that's all. He wants to know what Katniss thinks before she does a certain thing, or anything, really. He feels like a lost puppy when she's not around. It confuses him and all of his emotions and all of his feelings, how he feels.

_She'll probably never know,_ he thinks. _No one will know how I feel about the girl with the fire hidden in her eyes._

* * *

**This is one of the shortest. And look! CATO REALIZES HOW HE FEELS ABOUT HER! Look at me! I'm acting shocked, even though I wrote it! Thank you for all of the reviews, they really make my day. Not really a Catoniss chapter, I really need to write another, I really spoil you. **

**Bad news, I won't be able to update on Friday (in England), because I'm going to a theme park for a day, and it's really late by the time I'll get home. But I have to take a bus with my friends, so I'll try and write some of it on my ipod when my best friend has her headphones blaring. **

**I'll try my hardest to get a chapter up tomorrow, but until then it's sleepy time. PLEASE REVIEW!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Shake It Out **

**Chapter 6: The first snowfall of winter**

The eleven-year-old boy sits in the now-white meadow, amazement skidding across his ice blue eyes. He sees the white clumps of, something, fall around him, and he feels confused. He's never really seen this before, he's only seen it lightly once or twice, but there wasn't this much then. He still doesn't know what it is, but it's cold and melts - turning into water - when it lands on his tongue. The only thing he has seen that is even slightly related to these things floating gracefully in the air around him, is ice.

There's some frozen water, ice, outside his house, just in front of the door. He learned that the hard way. Ice has always amazed him. It's solid, but given a certain amount of heat, it can be reduced to it's liquid state. He also thinks he's a nerd for liking it for that reason. Ice is what it is, it can be good and bad. It's like a person; it can be bad for you, and it can be good for you. There is no in between. It's a constant. Well, not exactly.

He knows his eyes look like ice. Katniss told him once. She said she liked it, she thought it was cute, and she had no idea what that did to him inside.

Cato likes the ice, it reminds him of everything he left behind in District 2. He left his coldness, he left his anger, he left every bad thing he had done all alone in District 2. He's happy for that. The white stuff around him is rather deep, about up to his shins when he is standing up. He isn't really cold -the only thing he's wearing differently from normal is a pair of boots, a jacket, and a thick scarf. Cato is facing the fence, the woods, watching as the white substance coats the tall trees.

Suddenly, something cold hits him in the back of the head.

"Ow!" He complains, turning his head.

He hears her giggling, and turns to see her trying to pick up more of the white stuff. However, he stops Katniss before she can make it into a ball. He quickly gets to his feet and runs towards her. He wraps his arms around her from behind her back and leans backwards to fall against the ground. She squeals when he falls back against the ground, not letting her go. The ten-year-old girl squirms to get out of his arms. He chuckles, and she starts giggling as she attempts - and fails - to get out of his grasp.

"Quit moving! I'll keep getting more white stuff on me!" He exclaims, letting her go.

She rolls off of him and lies by his side and sits up. He sits up as well, brushing the white out of his hair. "White stuff?" She questions.

"Yeah, all of this stuff."

"It's called snow." She says in a 'duh' tone of voice, then rolls her eyes at him.

"Flower, are you going to be like this all day?" He asks, smirking.

"I won't be if you stop calling me Flower."

"Your name is a flower, so I don't think I will." He smile, triumphantly.

Katniss huffs and picks up a handful of snow in her left hand and plants it on his head. Cato's shocked expression makes her fall on her back, laughing. He soon recovers though, and he takes a small amount of snow into his hands and drops it on her face. She doesn't laugh, she shakes her head, removing it of snow. He is rolling around on his back, giggling hard. Suddenly, she jumps on top of him and pins him to the ground.

"Get off!" He says in between bursts of laughter.

"No!" She smiles, at him giggling at him struggling to move.

"Oh, I thought you were strong. I didn't think a little girl like me would be able to pin you down." Katniss teases, tilting her head.

He grunts, then grins. He rolls her off of him and she whines a bit before laughing a bit more.

He lies down, and she sits next to him, messing with his hair. Cato sighs, and shakes her hand away from his head. He lies there, staring at the sky above his head. She moves slightly, and he puts his head in her lap. She rolls her eyes at him, and tosses and ruffs up his hair.

"Katniss, Flower?" He asks, eyes closed.

"Yeah Blondie?" She smiles at his soft grin on his face.

"Can you sing 'Deep In The Meadow'?"

"Well-"

"Please?"

She sighs, "Fine."

Then she begins, "Deep in the meadow, under the willow. Is a bed of grass, a soft green pillow. Lay down your head, and close your sleepy eyes, and when again they open, the Sun will rise. Here it's safe, here it's warm, here the daisies guard you from every harm. Here your dreams are sweet, and tomorrow brings, them true. Here is the place, where I love you."

She pauses, then continues with the next verse. "Deep in the meadow, hidden far away. A cloak of leaves, a moonbeam ray. Lay down your woes, and let your troubles lay, and when it's morning, they'll wash away. Here it's safe, here it's warm, here the daisies guard you from every harm. Here your dreams are sweet, and tomorrow brings, them true. Here is the place, where I love you."

_I love you_, the words bounce around Cato's head. He doesn't want to tell her, not yet. He's thinking about in a few years, maybe, telling her, by a time that she could feel the same way about him as he does about her. He hears some mockingjays pick up her melody and sing it back to her.

"Thank you." He whispers in complete bliss.

"Don't mention it, Blondie." He sits up, grin plastered on his face.

"You always have to ruin the moment, don't you?"

She smiles sheepishly, "Maybe."

He rolls his eyes and takes in the white-covered scenery around him. It's oddly tranquil, covered in white. It makes it look almost childish, it makes it look soft. It makes it appear much safer than it actually is. That reminds him of something Katniss says a lot of the time:

_District 12. Where you can starve to death in safety._

He smiles to himself and looks over at Katniss. She's lying down with her eyes closed, her head tilted to the right a little. _She manages to look even better like that,_ Cato thinks. He crawls over to her and lies by her side.

"Are you asleep?" He whispers.

She groans, "No."

"Then what are you doing?"

"Ignoring you." She says with a grin. Cato just laughs in response.

"Aw, but you know you wouldn't be able to do that, now don't you Flower?"

She huffs and he leans over and places a kiss on her forehead, then her cheek. She blushes a little and he smiles softly at her. "Um, what was that for?" She asks, her cheeks currently a little red, and her eyes now open.

He shrugs. "I like you."

She lets a big smile jump onto her face and she turns to face him. Then he hears the words that make his heart beat faster.

"I like you, too."

* * *

**This is the shortest, I'm sorry. BUT IT'S A CATONISS CHAPTER. Think yourself lucky. As I said, I won't be able to update tomorrow (Friday) because I'll be at a theme park. Don't complain, I have my days. **

**I hope you enjoyed this chapter, even though it's shorter than the others. REVIEW/COMMENT OR WHATEVER HAS CHANGED IT TO!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Shake It Out **

**Chapter 7: Happy Birthday Flower**

The now eleven-year-old girl, sits on the floor of the kitchen of her small Seam house. Today is her birthday. She isn't really one for celebrating birthdays, because all it means is getting one year closer to reaping. Her birthday is two months after reaping, September the third. Her name goes in next year. Cato's name has already been in, his first year, and he didn't go into the arena. She was so happy that he didn't go in, it's basically a death sentence in District 12 now. He was relieved, he ran up to Katniss and held her tightly against him and buried his head in the side of her neck, that day. He didn't think he could live without her.

That was a message. Right there.

Her father took her hunting early in the morning, and they got enough food for the day, and maybe for tomorrow. After Katniss and her father went hunting, they went home and her father soon fled to the mines for the day. Seven-year-old Prim wished her a happy birthday, giving her a quick hug, before going to their mother to ask her to teach her about medicines and health. Prim is extremely interested in learning how to help the injured and the ill get back onto their feet.

Now it's the afternoon, and Katniss stays, crossed-legs, on the floor, a pink aster in her hand. She smiles at the memory of how she got it.

_"Cato, what are you doing?" She demanded, trailing behind him in the woods. _

_"You'll see!" He called back, sprinting ahead. _

_She catches up to him when he slows his pace to a jog, and they go side by side. They go far into the woods, with Katniss questioning him like 'what are you doing?' and 'where are we going?' and the occasional 'why am I following you, Blondie?' They finally stop when they reach a clearing, covered in every flower Katniss has ever heard of. _

_Cato walks over to a bunch of flowers that Katniss is familiar with. Asters. Some just beginning to show, and others in full bloom. She stares at them, happiness flooding her eyes, as she watches the cool breeze make them sway from side to side. He smiles at her, looking down at the flower she has her eyes on. _

_It's an aster. It has fully bloomed and is bright pink. It is stands alone, surrounded by yellow and purple asters. Though, it is the tallest among all of the flowers around them. Cato, looks back at Katniss and smiles. He takes one of his knives out of his belt, kneels down, and places the tip of the blade where the pink aster reaches the ground. He carefully cuts through it, not wanting to just rip it out of the ground. _

_Once he's done - which only took a few seconds - he stands and holds the plant out to Katniss. Her face instantly brightens, and she excepts it, grinning. _

_"It's beautiful." She whispers softly. _

_"Not as beautiful as you." He mumbles, placing his knife in his belt, hoping she didn't hear him. _

_She did. But she doesn't mention it. "Thanks." _

_"What are you doing tomorrow, for your birthday?" _

_"I don't know. Why?" _

_He shrugs. "Just curious." He pauses, "We should go back now." _

_She nods, holding the flower tightly in her hand, and they begin their long trek back to the fence surrounding their home, District 12..._

She is snapped out of her memories by a loud knocking on the door. Katniss quickly stands and runs to the door, opening it with a force that makes her stumble a small bit. On the other side of the door, is his familiar face. Cato's grinning at her, and she smiles back.

"Happy birthday, Flower." He holds out three flowers to her, all three asters. One yellow, one orange, and one red.

She takes them, and holds them together with the dry pink aster she received yesterday. "Do you want to come in?"

"Okay."

She leads him inside, and her mother and Prim are smiling at them. Her mother raises an eyebrow, silently questioning her eldest daughter. Katniss closes the front door behind them, and it closes with a satisfying 'click'.

"This is Cato. Cato this is my mother, and my sister, Prim."

He smiles warmly at them, and they smile back. Well, Primrose does more than that. When Cato kneels down, she runs over to him and wraps her arms around him. Prim's taller than him when he is kneeling down, but not by much. Cato hugs her back and says it's nice to finally meet her, then she nods and giggles in response.

Cato and Prim begin to talk about Katniss. But Katniss just rolls her eyes, and walks over to where her mother is standing, next to the kitchen table. She seems curious, and smiles at Katniss as if she knows something about him.

"So," Mrs. Everdeen begins, "Tell me about him."

"He's my best friend."

"Your father said that a few years ago." She stops, and smiles softly. "Tell me about him. Not just the basics."

Katniss blows out a small puff of air, then begins."He's from District 2, he moved when he was eight and I was seven. They moved because his parents didn't want him and his brother and sister to be trained for the games. They didn't want to train either, so they moved here." She stops as her mother nods, then she continues, "He has a a ten-year-old sister, called Dabria, and an eight-year-old brother, called Nuri."

She quietly says the next part. "He lives in town, but he hunts, too, because his family doesn't have a lot of money, not enough to have full bellies every day. If he doesn't get enough for his family, he doesn't eat, he lets them eat. He said they hate eating when he won't, but he always makes them. His family always comes first. His dad, he works in the mines, and he hunts with Cato early on Saturday mornings, and as much as he can on Sunday. Cato has been teaching Dabria and Nuri how to hunt, and they're getting better. Dabria goes out with him some mornings, to help him. She told me it was because she can't stand to see him get hungry for her sake."

Her mother looks shocked, then admiration enters her eyes. "He's a brave boy, that one." Her mother says, directing her eyes at the blond boy.

"He is." Katniss mumbles in agreement.

"She seems to have taken a shine to him." Her mother whispers, nodding towards Prim and Cato deep in conversation.

"It's hard not to. He's really nice."

Katniss smiles up at her mother, and she smiles back. "How long have you known him?"

"Um... Four years, around about." She says, then whispers, "It was his first reaping a few months ago." Her mother nods, looking over at the blond boy talking and laughing with her blonde, and youngest daughter. _Taken a shine to him is probably a understatement,_ Mrs. Everdeen thinks. _Prim looks like she adores him._

"He gave you those asters, did he?" Her mother questions.

"Yes. A present." Katniss, once again, smiles softly at her mother. Katniss walks over to where Prim and Cato are talking and she sits down beside them.

"-What are your brother and sister's names?"

"My brother is called Nuri, and my sister is called Dabria." Cato looks over to Katniss and smiles at her.

"How old are they?" Prim exclaims.

He chuckles, "Nuri is eight, and Dabria is ten."

Mrs. Everdeen calls, "Prim! come over here. Do you want to learn the plants that can be used for medicine?"

"Yes!" Prim replies happily, then jumps to her feet and scurrying over to her mother. Primrose excitedly stands and looks up at her mother, as she begins to open the book filled with edible plants, and plants that can be used to treat injuries. Prim sits at the kitchen table, enthusiasm obvious on her face as Mrs. Everdeen starts to explain that the first plant in the book is very similar to one that won't work on anything at all, and it isn't edible either.

"What did you two talk about?" Katniss asks him, curiously.

"Normal stuff. When I met you, where I'm from, where I live, my family. That kind of stuff."

"You were talking about me before."

"Yeah, how we know each other, how long I've known you, your other friend-"

"What other friend?" Katniss butts in. He looks confused, so he tells her.

"Um, the mayors daughter, Madge." He explains.

"Well, we're acquaintances, really."

"Do you like her as a friend? I didn't think you would even like someone that's part of the higher-ups."

Katniss sighs, "She's not bad. She isn't snobby like you would think. She doesn't rub her wealth and status in people's faces. And she is a nice person." She looks to him and sees him taking it all in, listening to every single word she has to say. She's seen him do that before.

"Oh." Cato responds, smiling. "Do you like your flowers, Flower?"

"Oh, they're very nice. Thank you, Blondie." She smirks at him, as she fiddles with the asters in her hands.

"Do you know why I got those colors?" He asks, serious now.

"No. Why?"

"Red, orange, and yellow. Like fire, in your eyes." Cato finishes.

She smiles at him and whispers "thank you", and he grins back at her soft and smiling face.

"So, what do you think?" Prim whispers to her mother, slightly pointing at Cato and Katniss smiling at each other. It makes Mrs. Everdeen smile. The young children, together and close, they'll be friends most of their lives, if not all of their lives. But Mrs. Everdeen sees something lurking behind Cato's icy eyes. Love. She looks over at her little girl, and looks at her fiery steel eyes. She sees the exact same thing in her eyes, but it's difficult to see.

She smiles at them as they begin to laugh, and she feels something warm in her heart when Cato takes the pink aster and places it on Katniss' ear, pushing the brown hair out of her daughter's face. They look like something special. That's the only thing that you can use to explain it, really. Mrs. Everdeen whispers something to her blonde daughter, something that Katniss and Cato can't hear.

"They love each other. They just don't know it yet."

* * *

**Okay, okay, I couldn't write at _all_ on the bus yesterday. Two reasons. 1. On the way to Flamingo Land I just couldn't focus. 2. On the way back on the bus my best friend, Niamh, was hitting me over the head with a giant rubber hammer that she won.**

**I hope you liked this chapter! Thanks for the reviews and stuff! I liked it, and I think you should review. What? You want a reason? IT'S AMAZING! THAT'S A REASONABLE REASON.**

**Well, please review or comment (It's really staring to confuse me). Thanks for reading and PLEASE REVIEW! (OR WHATEVER IT IS!)**


	8. Chapter 8

**Shake It Out **

**Chapter 8: Our Daddys Are Gone - If Only It Was A Dream**

The eleven-year-old girl sits in her Seam house, talking with her best friend. Cato, his mother Dabria, and Nuri came over earlier. Cato was just coming to visit Katniss and her family, but Dabria and Nuri insisted they come and meet Katniss' family. Dabria speaks to Mrs. Everdeen along with Mrs. Taylor (Cato's mother), who she seems to have taken a liken to, while Nuri talks to Prim. Non-stop. Katniss thinks it's amazing how quickly they became friends. On the other hand, she shouldn't be amazed, because Cato and her became friends extremely fast.

Literally only a matter of minutes. She remembers the day they met, the way he was. Cato told her that when he saw her, he wanted her to be his friend instantly. Mission accomplished. They're best friends, and their families get along extremely well. Katniss thinks it's a miracle they get along so well, because if they didn't, there would be trouble. Because Cato and Katniss would never stop being friends, no matter what happened.

Cato is sitting in front of her, looking at her like she's crazy. Katniss doesn't notice, though, because she's daydreaming. She just wonders about anything, the woods, the meadow, the school, Town, the Hob, the Seam, the mines. The mines. Her father and Cato's are down there, at this moment. She worries about him all of the time he leaves to go to work in the mines, and Cato worries about his father too.

The worst things that could happen in the mines, all of the things that could go wrong at any moment, are always on their young minds. They can't help it, they worry, they think, they think bad things, and all of the things that could go wrong in the mines are always plaguing their minds. They try their hardest to not think about it, but sometimes they can't. They can't just ignore the worry in themselves every time their fathers leave to go into the mines. They don't want to think about it.

"Hello? Is anybody there?" Cato asks, poking Katniss in the head.

Katniss quickly shakes her head, then glanced at Cato sitting in front of her. "I'm sorry, what?"

"You looked like you were off in a different world." The twelve-year-old boy responded, soft smile gracing his lips.

She sighs, then mumbles, "I was."

The young brunette lies down on the hard floor, and the one year older blond lies next to her. "What do you want to do?" He questions.

"There isn't much to do."

"Well, get a book, or something." Cato finishes, sighing.

"A book? We only have a few. What one do you want?" She stands and walks over to a small pile of books in the corner of the small living room. They have something like, twelve books all together, including one book about the history of Panem. Katniss suggested burning it once, but her mother told her it was required, that they really needed it. The girl has only ever read that book twice, at the most. She still doesn't understand why it's so important to have.

"Something with a happy ending." Cato states, looking over at her.

"Okay." The girl grabs a thick book, covered in dust, and extremely ruffed up. It looks like it doesn't need much more to happen to it, before it completely falls apart. Or disintegrates. She walks back over to him, and sits down next to him as he begins to move into a sitting position.

"Where's that from? How long ago?" He asks, curiously.

"Um... Really long ago. It's from a different country, though, it's kind of a lot easier to understand than the original." She explains.

"Who's it by? What is it?" Cato questions.

"It's a play, but in a book style. It's by a man called William Shakespeare, and it's called 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'." The blond rolls his eyes in response.

"Well, it sounds boring."

"It's not." She responds with a smile.

She begins reading the thick book, and Cato listens intently to every single word she says.

The story/play includes three interlocking plots, connected by a celebration of the wedding of Duke Theseus of Athens and the Amazon queen, Hippolyta, and set, at the same time, in the woodland, and in the realm of Fairyland, under the light of the moon.

In the beginning of the book, Hermia refuses to follow her father Egeus's instructions to marry Demetrius, whom he has chosen for her. In response, Egeus quotes before Theseus an ancient Athenian law whereby a daughter must marry her husband chosen by her father, or else face death. Theseus offers her another choice: lifelong chastity worshiping the goddess Diana as a nun.

At that same time, Peter Quince and his fellow players gather to produce a stage play, "the most lamentable comedy and most cruel death of Pyramus and Thisbe", for the Duke and the Duchess. Quince reads the names of characters and bestows them to the players. Nick Bottom who is playing the main role of Pyramus, is over-enthusiastic and wants to dominate others by suggesting him self for the characters of Thisbe, The Lion and Pyramus all at the same time. Also he would rather be a tyrant and recites some lines of Ercles or Hercules. Quince ends the meeting with "at the Duke's oak we meet."

Meanwhile, Oberon, king of the fairies, and his queen, Titania, have come to the forest outside Athens. Titania tells Oberon that she plans to stay there until after she has attended Theseus and Hippolyta's wedding. Oberon and Titania are estranged because Titania refuses to give her Indian changeling to Oberon for use as his knight, slave or henchman, since the child's mother was one of Titania's worshipers.

Oberon seeks to punish Titania for being disobedient, so he gets his mischievous jester Puck to help him use a magical juice from a flower called 'love-in-idleness,' originally a white flower but when it was struck by Cupid's bow it turned the flower purple with a tinge of white. When it is placed onto a person's eyelids while sleeping makes the person fall in love with the first living thing they see when they awaken.

He clearly instructs Puck to retrieve the flower so that he can make Titania fall in love with the first thing she sees when she wakes up, which he is sure will be an animal of the forest. Oberon's idea is to shame Titania into giving up the little Indian boy. He says, "And ere I take this charm from off her sight, As I can take it with another herb, I'll make her render up her page to me."

Seeing Demetrius act cruelly toward Helena, Oberon orders Puck to spread some of the magical juice from the flower on the eyelids of the young Athenian man. Instead, Puck mistakes Lysander for Demetrius, not having actually seen either before, and gives the juice to the sleeping Lysander. Helena, coming across him, wakes him while attempting to find out whether he is dead or just asleep. Upon this happening, Lysander immediately falls in love with Helena. Oberon sees Demetrius still following Hermia and becomes angry. When Demetrius decides to go to sleep, Oberon sends Puck to get Helena while he charms Demetrius' eyes. When he wakes up, he sees Helena.

Now, both men are in pursuit of Helena. However, she believes that the two men are mocking her, as neither loved her to begin with. Hermia is at a loss to see why her lover has abandoned her, and accuses Helena of stealing Lysander away from her. The four argue with each other until Lysander and Demetrius become so enraged that they seek a place to duel each other to prove whose love for Helena is the strongest. Oberon tells Puck to keep Lysander and Demetrius from catching up with one another and to remove the charm from Lysander, so that he goes back to being in love with Hermia.

Meanwhile, Quince and his band of six labourers, have arranged to perform their play about Pyramus and Thisbe for Theseus' wedding and go farther into the forest, near Titania's bower, for their rehearsal. Bottom is spotted by Puck, who turns his head into a head of a donkey. When Bottom returns for his next lines, the other workmen run screaming in terror, much to Bottom's confusion, since he hasn't felt a thing during the transformation. Determined to wait for his friends, he starts to sing to himself. Titania is woken by Bottom's singing and immediately falls in love with him.

She lavishes him with attention, and presumably makes love to him. While she is in this state of devotion, Oberon takes the changeling (the Indian boy). Having achieved his goals, Oberon frees Titania, orders Puck to remove the donkey's head from Bottom, and fix everything so that Hermia, Lysander, Demetrius, and Helena will believe that they have been dreaming when they awaken. Demetrius is left under the spell and in love with Helena.

The fairies then disappear, and Theseus and Hippolyta arrive on the scene, during an early morning hunt. They wake the lovers and, since Demetrius doesn't love Hermia any more, Theseus over rules Egeus's demands and fixes up a group wedding. The lovers decide that the night's events must have been a dream. After they all go, Bottom awakes, and he too decides that he must have had a dream. In Athens, Theseus, Hippolyta and the lovers watch the six workmen perform Pyramus and Thisbe. Given a lack of preparation, the performers are so terrible playing their roles to the point where the guests laugh as if it were meant to be a comedy, and soon after everyone goes to bed. Afterward, Oberon, Titania, Puck, and other fairies enter, and bless the house and the people inside with good fortune.

Puck says at the end, though, that this may be nothing but a dream...

Katniss finishes the book, and closes it with a loud thud. She smiles at Cato and his icy blue eyes are filled with wonder and amazement. She wants to laugh at him, but she can't help but think how cute he looks in this moment.

"Is it boring?" She asks him, a smirk playing on face.

"No, but it was confusing." He rubs his forehead as if the book actually made his head hurt.

Katniss laughs, "I know, the first time I heard it, I had no idea what was going on."

They sit in silence for a while, comfortable around each other. They almost fall asleep, but they keep their eyes open. They talk every now and then about things; school, Prim, Dabria and Nuri, and lots of other things. A lot of the things they talk about normally end up about their family, even if the subject was completely different.

They sit there for a few hours, until they hear a loud knock o the door. Mrs. Everdeen moves to open it, and is surprised to see a very young peacekeeper, Darius. She lets him in and then she asks why he would be here now. Everyone in the room stands, awaiting the news.

"Well... Oh, the Taylor family are here, too. This is for both of you." He sighs, and begins, his voice slightly wobbly, "There is no easy way to say this, so I'm just going to say it. There has been a tragic accident. There has been an explosion, in the mines. I'm afraid that, Jaden Everdeen and Caleb Taylor didn't make it out. I'm so very sorry for our loss." He nods, with tears filling his eyes, then quickly leaves the house.

Katniss and Cato are frozen, while their siblings cry their eyes out. Katniss and Cato don't know, they love their fathers very much, and to be told that they are gone, that they didn't even get a chance to say goodbye makes them almost die inside. All that Cato remembers about him at that exact moment, is that his father didn't promise that he was coming back. He wishes so much that he did, a broken promise is better than none at all. Especially in this situation.

The young brunette doesn't know what to do. She loves her father, and now, she doesn't know what she'll do without him. She can't cry, at least not now. She glances over at her mother and Cato's and her stomach drops. Her mother has tears in her eyes and a quivering bottom lip, as she stares at her wedding photo, more precisely, her husband. Cato's mother is hugging her siblings - aside from Cato - and brings Prim into it too.

Katniss looks over at Cato, and sees that his eyes are wide are some tears are escaping them every now and then. She launches herself into his arms, and begins to sob into his shoulder as he cries into hers. One of his arms go around her waist, while the other cradles her head over his shoulder. Her arms are around his neck as she wildly soaks his shirt with her, what seem like endless stream of tears. He holds her close, not wanting to let her go, and her not wanting to let him go. Because they both now, they won't be able to get through this without each other.

At this moment, they both wish that it had just been a dream. Only just a dream...

* * *

**Okay, I know, I killed their fathers. If it was full on fluff it wouldn't be the hunger games, even if it is fanfiction. And I'm sorry that 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' took up a lot of space. I wanted a story and I really like that one. I hope you don't hate me for killing their dads. Sorry about that...**

**PLEASE REVIEW! I am having blonde moments, so people have to speak slowly to me. Weird, huh? And again, PLEASE REVIEW! REVIEW IS AS GOOD AS EATING A CUPCAKE! You feel sweet after having it. PLEASE!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Shake It Out **

**Chapter 9: Getting Better**

The eleven-year-old girl stumbles through the woods, to find her valuable weapon. Peeta gave her the bread a week ago, and she couldn't be more thankful. She still doesn't know why he gave her the bread, the only thing she can assume is that he pitied her. That he felt sorry for her. Or just that he was trying to be nice. She would rather it be that he was just being nice, but either way, she has started to provide for her family. She hunts in the mornings and after school, as she won't let her family die.

Her mother still won't talk to them, but when Katniss came home again from a hunt with a squirrel, it stirred something inside her mother and her mother skinned it for them. Katniss has finally gotten her mother to eat without being forced to. Katniss knows that after this, she will never be able to trust her mother again. Her mother just blocked them out, and just didn't ever do anything to help her and Prim through this tuff time. She was being selfish, really, not caring about her two daughters enough to even get a job to support them.

Little Primrose was withering away. She still tried to get her mother out of whatever daze she was trapped in. Prim still had hope.

Here Katniss was, crashing through the forest to reach her weapon's hiding place. When she reached it, she grabbed her bow and arrows - arrows in the quiver - and then she begun hunting. She tip-toes through across the dark forest floor, in search for game. She comes across a small squirrel up in a tree, and takes aim. It doesn't get time to scream out in shock, because the arrow is piercing it's small, furry body. Katniss smiles proudly, and lowers her bow.

She walks over to the now-dead woodland creature and rips the arrow from it's body and sticks it in the quiver on her back. She picks up the squirrel and tucks the tail into her belt, so it hangs down her leg. She continues walking through the woods, farther and farther, until she sees a knife whiz past her face and hits the trunk of the tree next to her with a 'thunk'. She quickly sees that the knife went through a rather large squirrel that attempted to climb down the tree.

The girl turns her head to see Cato, moving to take the knife from the tree. However, she grabs it first along with the squirrel, and throws the dead creature at his head. It lands right on his face, which he soon grabs and tucks into his belt. He leans against a tree, silently asking for his knife back, which she playfully tosses at the tree, right next to his head. Slowly, he gives her a small smile before removing his knife from the tree and placing in his thin jacket. He has his sword on his back, for finishing off some of the bigger animals the woods has to offer.

"How's your family?" He asks, stepping forward.

She pauses, "Better now. What about yours?" Katniss tilts her head slightly.

"Well, my mother has found a job. Dabria wants to come hunting again, and she says she wants Nuri to try as well."

She nods, "That's good."

She's shaking, and he notices, so he opens his arms and she comes crashing towards him and wraps her arms around him, bow in hand. One of his hands snake up to cradle her head on his shoulder, while the other rest on her waist. She sighs, taking in the moment. He takes in her scent, and finds that she has the smell of the forest on her along with her own personal scent, making her even more unique.

"I miss this." He mutters, eyes closed.

She sighs, "Me too."

They stand and hold each other for ten minutes, until they finally let go of each other, even though neither of them wanted to. She suggest that they start hunting, and he agrees to what she has to say. They begin hunting and come across rabbits and squirrels, which they get a lot of. A lot to have a good meal for both of their families. Katniss lets Cato have a little more than her family, due to the fact that Cato has one more mouth than her to feed.

He was going to object, but she forced it on him. She gave him the share of food he needed for his mother, him, Nuri, and Dabria, while he made sure that she had enough food for her mother, herself, and sweet little Primrose.

They walk to the fence, but before they get there, they hide their weapons in the hallow part of a fallen tree. Katniss puts her bow and arrows in the trunk, while Cato slides his sword in but leaves the knives he has that occupy the pockets on the inside of his muddy green, thin jacket. Katniss picks two bag that she hides there that's her game bag and Cato's. She hands him his bag which he accepts, then he stuffs his share into the bag while she does the same with hers.

The pair stroll to the fence surrounding District 12, making sure to keep an eye on all around them. When they reach the fence, they strain their ears to try and hear the sound of electricity flowing through the metal fence, but find none. Cato pushes the bags under the fence then goes under to get onto the other side, and Katniss doesn't hesitate to follow. She picks up her bag while he picks up his and places over his shoulder, hand still firmly on the strap.

"Do you want to go to the Hob?" She questions.

"Um-" He starts, unsure, and unable to finish as she butts in.

"You could get something other than meat if you trade something." She explains.

"Okay." He agrees.

The pair begin walking to the Seam, quickly to leave the dandelion covered meadow. She is beginning to feel hunger, so she assumes that Prim will more than likely be hungry, so she and Cato need to hurry up. Somehow, they manage to strike up a small conversation during their walk.

"So you're really starting to provide for your family?" He asks her.

"Yes." She replies. "Aren't you?"

"Not completely. My mother does have a job." Cato states, looking over at her walking beside him.

"Yes at the school, it doesn't earn much money working there." She retorts, harsher than intended.

"So?" He bites.

"So, you are starting to be the main provider for your family. The man of the house."

He looks down, and sighs. "I guess, but I'm not sure if I can."

Katniss looks over at him, sighs, then a small smile spreads across her face. "You'll have Dabria, she's a very strong girl. She reminds me a lot of you."

"She is strong, but I don't think she's anything like me."

"Really? You're both kind and caring and strong in your own way." She pauses, thinking everything over in her mind. "Did Dabria ever tell you why she started hunting with you, a while ago?" She questions, and he shakes his head.

He says, "No. Why?"

"She told me it was because she couldn't stand to see you go hungry." Those words do something to him.

"She actually said that?" Katniss nods at him in response.

Before they know it, they are already at the Seam. People look at Cato with strange looks, but they soon fade away when they see how worn town he is. The darkness in his eyes, the dirt on his face, his tattered clothes. They don't look at him like he's from a different world after seeing that. They arrive at the Hob and Katniss walks over to an old woman who she tells him that people just call her Greasy Sae. Cato manages to get a three bowls of soup for two of the bigger rabbits he caught. Katniss trades two of her squirrels for some milk for her little Prim.

"Thank you." Katniss mumbles to Greasy Sae, as she and Cato leave the Hob.

They leave the Hob, with their game bags filled with all of the food that they have to feed their families. The two walk through the streets of the Seam, on their way to Katniss' small house. Cato walks up with Katniss to her house, her front door, where she stops him before he leaves.

"I know... I know this is selfish, but, would you mind coming into see Prim? Just for a few minutes, it will make her feel so much better." He pauses for a moment.

"Okay. But not long." Katniss nods and drags him inside her house. As soon as the front door opens, Prim looks for her sister's familiar face and finds it. She smiles and runs towards her, then she notices Cato. She changes her course and Cato kneels down, holding the seven-year-old in his arms.

"How are you, Prim?" He asks the small blonde.

"Okay! How are Dabria and Nuri?" She exclaims.

"Better." He replies, and stands up, then his hand begins to twitch slightly. "Sorry, but I really have to go." Katniss nods in response, and Cato pecks her cheek before leaving her small house, and beginning his walk to his broken house in Town. Katniss in turning slightly red and Prim is giggling at her older sister's reaction. Katniss just smiles. Maybe life could get much better after all.

He reaches his house and gives his game bag to Nuri and hands one of his sharp knives to Dabria. She smiles at him, before taking Nuri to the kitchen table to put the game on the table so she can prepare the food. Their mother said she would help but Cato just said that they would take care of it.

They eat dinner together as a family, but it isn't the same without their father. And it never will be.

* * *

**This chapter is kind of rushed, sorry, I started writing this chapter later than I normally do, so, yeah... It isn't as much Catoniss as some of the chapters but bare with me, their fathers just died, they can have their salvation moments. If that makes any sence...**

**If you can, please review! I know I say it all of the time but I love reading your reviews, it really helps me. I will try and update tomorrow, when I get home from classes. Until then, thank you and PLEASE REVIEW! **


	10. Chapter 10

**Shake It Out **

**Chapter 10: Haunted Darkness - Hush Little Baby**

The twelve-year-old girl lies under the shadow of a tall tree, in the woods surrounding District 12. She loves this place, but it's still haunted. The ghost of her father constantly follows her around every time she shimmies under the fence. Her father, Jaden Everdeen, the only person she could truly trust. Not the only one now. She trusts Cato, but that's different. He's her friend and she is his best friend, not like the relationship she shared with her father.

Her father was the person who constantly cared for her, family. A father is nothing like a friend, they are similar in some ways, but not all. She loved her father, and now all that was left of him was his hunting jacket that Katniss had stuffed herself into. She wanted to remember him, and she thought she would never ever forget about him if she wore his hunting jacket every time she went on a hunt, or when it was just particularly cold outside.

Katniss never thought ghosts could exist. She heard people say things related to ghosts about Haymitch Abernathy, District 12's only living victor of the Hunger Games. They heard people mumble things about his drinking and would complain, but then one person would always step up and say that he has a reason to drink. So he can block out all of his ghosts. The ghosts of the children from his games, the fiftieth Hunger Games, the second quarter quell, where there were double the amount of tributes.

The young brunette - Katniss, never thought that ghosts could ever be real. When she began to believe they were real, it wasn't her who was haunted. It was sweet Cato.

It all happened two weeks prior, when Katniss and Cato were lying in the dried up Meadow under the afternoon Sun. The thirteen-year-old boy sat up slightly, and glanced at the fence surrounding the District. Correction, he glanced at the woods. The woods. He saw a figure in it, tall and muscular, with short blond hair. That's when he realized it; it was his father. Cato quickly got to his feet, then sprinted towards the fence.

Katniss was chasing him asking him what he was doing, but he just didn't stop. He saw his father and nothing could stop Cato at this moment. He lunged at the hole in the fence and scurried under it as quickly as his body could manage. He saw a whiff of blond hair but every time he got closer to him, he just seemed to get further away. Cato kept on running, though. He didn't even remember that his father was actually dead. All he remembered was that he hadn't seen his father in a long time, and he wanted that to change.

He sees his father stop, and then he says, "Goodbye son. The family need you. Take good care of them." Then he begins to fade away into nothing, and leaving the woods forever and ever, never to return.

Cato is on his knees, tears streaming down his face, begging his father to stay with him. "No! Don't go! I need you, mother needs you, Dabria and Nuri need you! You can't go dad, you have to stay! Don't-" Cato finally breaks down into tears, face in his hands. Katniss kneels beside him, wrapping her arms around him and he leans into her. She begins hushing him, whispering that everything will be okay. He shakes his head, he doesn't believe that. How can life be good - be okay, without having a father in it.

"What happened?" She whispers in his ear.

"I-I, I saw him."

"Who?"

"My father."

Her eyes go wide, but she holds him closer, making sure it doesn't happen again, that he won't see a familiar ghost. What Katniss just witnessed was heart breaking. She had never seen Cato like that. On his knees, crying, and broken. She never realized how broken he was until that moment. In all fairness, he was hiding his emotions very well. He was better than Katniss. She never wanted to see him like that again. Never ever ever...

She honestly doesn't know what to do. She feels selfish, but she thinks she deserves at least one moment to let it all out. It's been a year, and she has never fully released all of her pent up emotion, and now seemed like a good enough time to do so.

Katniss brings her knees up to her chest and curls into herself, letting the tears fall, and fall hard. She puts her back against the hard bark of the tree, ready to move incase something finds her, so that she can get away as quickly as possible.

She never had a breakdown like this. Actually, she had never cried enough for it to be counted as a breakdown. The girl thinks it's good though, to get out all of the feeling of loss that has overcome her emotions over the past year. She believes that crying is healthy, it is good for her.

It could do her some good.

Suddenly, she feels the familiar warmth of him surround her, as her cradles her in his arms. He's sitting down, and Cato holds her close to him, putting her on his lap as she curls up against his chest. His back is against the tree, his head resting on her shoulder.

"Okay, okay." He whispers.

She groan, as the tears continue to fall.

"Hush little baby, don't you cry." He whispers soothingly into her ear.

"Okay." She replies.

Lyrics of a chorus from a sad song play over and over in her head and soon she begins mumbling those words while Cato rocks her back and forth.

"I should say goodbye, before I say hello, so darling, hold me, closely tonight... Because if you open your eyes, I'd never let you go, moving slowly, we'll both sleep tonight..." She pauses before continuing with the final line. "I'll just be dreaming till you wa-ake up."

He tightens his grip on her, and presses his lips to the crown of her head. She sighs as the final tear from a waterfall of tears, rolls down her her cheek and slides off of her face. Her eyes are puffy and red-rimmed, and her face has dried tear tracks running down it.

She slides out of is grip and kneels in front of Cato. She sees the worry written all across his face. "I needed it." She whispers looking down in front of her.

He nods. "Ghosts?" She shakes her head 'yes' in response.

"I've been having nightmares lately." She starts, not knowing if she can carry on. Cato is her best friend, and she can trust him with anything and everything. If she had a secret, he would already know it by now. His eyes are questioning her, silently asking her if she has anything really important to tell him, or if she does have something very important to tell him, that she actually feels comfortable telling him about it.

"It's been about what happened. With our fathers." He tenses up, but she decides to continue. "What happens is, I'm standing above the mines and I can see them both; your father and mine. Then, some sort of rumbling noise comes from the direction they're mining, and they know what it is, and everyone around them runs, but they don't." She pauses, but finds that no tears are threatening to escape her eyes, so she continues.

"I just stand there, watching them, screaming for them to run, but they don't and they won't. Then the mines explode, and I just watch them get engulfed by the walls and the coal, and them being blown to bits. A-and there's nothing I can do but, watch." Katniss finishes, looking down.

He clears his throat. "It wasn't real, you know."

"I know."

"I think it's reached a time, that we need leave."

She nods then jumps to her feet, yanking him along with her. She grasps his hand in hers, intertwining her fingers with his. They walk to the fence like this and then they slip under the chain-linked fence.

They stand there for a few moments, before she walks up to him and presses her lips to his, for one second, before running back home, not looking back. She doesn't know why, but she feels like some sort of weight has been lifted from her shoulders.

But little did she know, what she had just got herself into...

* * *

**Real short chapter. Sorry I couldn't update yesterday, my internet failed and I recall thhrowing something across the room...**

**Well thank you for reading, sorry it's short, I thought it was nice. PLEASE REVIEW! I AM STARTING TO REVIEW SOME THINGS AND I ENJOY IT! I'M TWISTED AND I LIKE IT! PLEASE REVIEW! **


	11. Chapter 11

**Shake It Out **

**Chapter 11: Cato and Gale**

The thirteen-year-old girl walks through the woods with her fourteen-year-old best friend, Cato. Katniss made a new friend a few months ago, before reaping. His name is Gale. He accused her of taking game from his snares in the woods. He calls her Catnip, because when she told him her name, it was barely above a whisper and he misheard her. Then a lynx started following her around when he was always around so the nickname stuck.

She had to kill the lynx because it was scaring off game. It was bad, the lynx actually wasn't bad company. But she got a good price for his pelt. She had been alternating between hunting with Cato and hunting with Gale. She enjoys hunting with both of them, but she has been hunting with Cato longer than she has with Gale.

They're similar, but worlds apart. It's extremely difficult to describe the differences in their personalities, when they're basically the same except they're different because they've been twisted to make two individuals. Cato. Gale. Cato, strong, protective, and caring. Cato is protective of his family and Katniss. He cares a great deal about his mother, Dabria, and Nuri. He cares a lot about Katniss. Probably a lot more than he would care to admit.

Gale is protective of his family. Katniss learned that his father died in the same mine explosion that took her and Cato's father. He has his mother and siblings to take care of. He has three younger siblings, two brothers and one sister. His brother, Vick, his other brother, Rory, and his sister, Posy. He cares about his family, but he isn't really open about it. He's fifteen-years-old, and he has been taking care of his family since he was thirteen-years-old.

"Katniss?" Cato whispers.

"W-What?" She answers, snapping back to reality.

"Who set those up?" He says, pointing towards a snare that has been recently set.

Cato looks at it, as if it will tell him who set it. It's perfectly set, obviously the person who did it knew what they were doing.

"Going to steal my game, huh?" A voice calls from behind them.

Cato quickly takes a knife out of his coat, ready to throw it if needs be. He whips around to see a dark haired boy, slightly older than he is, with grey Seam eyes and olive skin. Cato thinks that he looks as if he could be Katniss' brother, but people from the Seam tend to look similar. The boy has a bow with a quiver full of arrows on his back, and one arrow readied in the bow to take down animals or anything that will cause him harm.

The boy smiles at Katniss. "Catnip."

"Gale." She nods at him.

"And who's blond boy?" He asks with a smirk.

"His name's Cato." She says, a little bit harsh. Then she says, softly with a smile, "Cato, this is Gale."

They nod at each other but Katniss sees something unsettling about it. She can just tell they probably won't end up getting along. They won't smile at each other, it seems almost impossible to do so. There's something behind their glares, a hidden hatred the other has yet to discover. Katniss tries to make the most of it, but she knows no matter how hard she tries, the two boys will never ever become friends.

They hunt together, the three of them. Gale tries to rub his archery skill in Cato's face, but all that Cato can think is, it's nothing I haven't seen before. Gale is impressed by Cato's skill with throwing knives, as Gale can't throw that well. Not as well as him, anyway. But it's not like Gale is going to ask Cato for some help. He's impressed, yes, but Gale doubts he will ever ask Cato Taylor to do anything for him.

Once Cato has gotten enough for him, his mother, Dabria, and Nuri, he bids them good by. He pecks Katniss on the cheek before walking to the fence surrounding District 12. Gale glares at Cato's fading silhouette as he disappears behind the many trees in the woods. Gale knows he hates Cato. Cato knows he hates Gale. But neither of them know that the other hates them, but they do have their theories.

"Didn't think you would be friends with a boy from Two." He states, as the two of them trek farther and farther into the depths of the woods surrounding District 12.

She glances at him, taking her time before answering. "How do you know he's from Two?"

"You can just tell. Nobody's hair in District 12 is that sort of blond." Gale explains.

"Well, him and his family aren't like the people in Two." She says through slightly gritted teeth.

He spits, "Really? Because the sword he has on his back would beg to differ."

"His family didn't want him and his siblings to train for the games, and neither did they. That's why they're here. Stop making snap judgments." She complains. Katniss does not like where this is going, and shes starting to think she doesn't want to know. He shouldn't be complaining about Cato, when he obviously doesn't know him. It makes Katniss slightly angry, so she hopes that Gale won't push it too far.

He scoffs. "And you think you know him so well? How long have you two been friends?"

"Six years." She bites, back shooting a small unsuspecting squirrel through the eye. She walk over to it, and removes the arrow from it's skull. She puts the squirrel in the game back she had brought with her. She wipes the arrow on her pants, ridding it of the creatures blood, then positions it back into the bow.

"What do you have against him?" Katniss questions, stopping in her tracks. She has killed enough animals for her family to eat. She thinks Gale has, as well.

"I don't know." He answers.

"Then you better think of a reason." She says, sternly.

"Fine. Tell me about him." He says sitting down on the forest floor.

"Excuse me?" She says. She hesitates, but then she sits in front of him, legs crossed.

They put their bows down next to them and she waits for an explanation. Why would Gale want to know anything about Cato? He clearly doesn't like him that much, so is he just looking for a much stronger reason to dislike him? He probably just wants a valid reason to not like Katniss' best friend. Well, that would be difficult, considering that Cato is a very kind and good person. So Gale might have to search extra hard for a reason to not like Cato.

"Maybe I won't have anything against him if he's a good guy." Gale explains.

"Okay." She pauses, thinking some things over. "What would you like to know first?"

Gale thinks, not knowing exactly what to say. He doesn't know much about the blond boy, apart from that he was from District 2. And he has rather recently discovered that he has been Katniss' friend for six years. He'll start with asking about him hunting.

"Why does he hunt if he lives in Town?"

Katniss sighs, knowing exactly what this will start. "His family never really had any money, so he hunts for them."

"Why doesn't his father do it?"

The young girl looks down, as if she thinks it will hurt Cato by saying it. If Cato was around, it might actually of hurt him. On the inside, of course."Because his father died in the same mine explosion that killed our fathers."

"His dad worked in the mines?" Gale asks, surprised. He didn't think ex-District 2 residents would have to have to have one of the members of their family work in the mines. He thinks there are some mines in District 2, but none like the life threatening ones in District 12.

"Yeah."

"Okay..." Gale pauses. He doesn't know what he wants to know about Cato. He's not sure if he even wants to know that much about him. But Gale thinks that it might actually be best to learn as much about him as possible, just incase. "Um, how many siblings does he have?"

"Two. A twelve-year-old sister called Dabria, and a ten-year-old brother called Nuri."

He nods, then says, "Do they, um, hunt?"

Katniss blows out a puff of air before answering. "Well, his brother was going to but Cato and his sister didn't want him to. His sister tries to hunt with him as much as possible."

"Why does she hunt with him?"

Katniss gulps. This is going to be hard to say for Katniss. The fact that Cato went without food so that his family could eat does something to Katniss' heart. She understood why he did it, but his family didn't want to eat when he wouldn't. But Cato forced them to. He used to barely eat anything just so his family could. Cato always says that his family comes first, he will do anything to protect his family and keep them alive.

"Well, Dabria - his sister - hunts with him because he used to not eat." She pauses as confusion takes over Gale's face. "When he couldn't get enough for him and his family to eat, he used to not have anything at all. He forced his family to eat, even though he wouldn't. It broke his sisters heart. She told me she hunted with him because she just couldn't bare to see him go hungry while she was aloud to eat. She didn't think it was right."

Gale's eyes are wide, and he looks confused. He didn't think that Cato would have done something like that a few minutes ago. But now he realizes, he doesn't think he can hate the boy who doesn't eat so his family can. It would just make Gale a terrible person, when he isn't. So he isn't going to hate him, nor is he going to be friends with him. But he will more than likely never hate Cato for being so selfless.

"He didn't eat so his family could..." Gale mumbles looking at his hands.

"Yeah." She answers, even though she knew Gale wasn't looking for an answer. Katniss just thought it needed an answer.

"I can't." He whispers, looking up at Katniss.

"What?"

"I can't hate him. I don't want to, either." He explains, getting to his feet. She looks up at him, and he is looking somewhere far in the distance, just thinking. "We should probably go. Your family will be getting hungry."

She nods, then stands, but by the time she does, Gale is already fading back to the District 12 fence. She sighs, then picks up her bow and begins walking to there storage space. When she reaches the hollow log, she finds that Cato has put his sword inside the log. She carefully places her bow and her quiver filled with arrows on his sword. Slowly, Katniss walks to the fence that imprisons District 12. She slides under it with her game bag and makes her way home.

She knows that Gale won't hate Cato anymore, but that won't stop Cato.

* * *

**Okay, sorry about the delay. I HAD WRITERS BLOCK AND PEOPLE WERE CRYING ON FRIDAY. And I had so many moments, but some were amazing. Like on Friday when my class got to watch The Woman In Black, and at the beginning three girls jump out of a window and me and my friends went, "Wee!"**

**LOL. SUCK CRACK! ****Okay, I've nicknamed the next chapter, "OH, HELL NO!" Why, you ask? You'll have to read it when I update it. **

**SPOILERS HERE PEOPLE. I will be putting Katniss and Cato in the games, but in seperate years. Don't like it, sue me. (Jokes! Don't actually sue me!)**

**PLEASE REVIEW! I WILL MAKE THE OH, HELL NO! CHAPTER AMAZING. PLEASE REVIEW!**


	12. Chapter 12

**Shake It Out**

_Regrets collect like old friends _

_Here to relive your darkest moments _

_I can see no way, I can see no way _

_And all of the ghouls come out to play _

_And every demon wants his pound of flesh _

_But I like to keep some things to myself _

_I like to keep my issues drawn _

_It's always darkest before the dawn _

_And I've been a fool and I've been blind _

_I can never leave the past behind _

_I can see no way, I can see no way _

_I'm always dragging that horse around _

_Our love is questioned, such a mournful sound _

_Tonight I'm gonna bury that horse in the ground _

_So I like to keep my issues drawn _

_But it's always darkest before the dawn _

_Shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, ooh whoa _

_Shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, ooh whoa _

_And it's hard to dance with a devil on your back _

_So shake him off, oh whoa_

~Shake It Out, Florence + The Machine

**Shake It Out **

**Chapter 12: There Couldn't Have Been A Worse Time To Tell You**

The fifteen-year-old boy returns home from his morning hunt. He thinks he has enough for the day. He got a few rabbits, some squirrels, and managed to gather some strawberries. Cato thinks that his family will enjoy their meal. He removes the knives from his jacket and places them in a small wooden box next to his mattress. He removes his jacket and throws it on his mattress, before leaving the room to return to the kitchen.

He finds his mother skinning one of the rabbits and he smiles at her. She wasn't the same after his father died, but she wasn't as bad as Katniss' mother. Cato's mother voiced her feelings, and helped her children survive through out the ruff patch in their lives. As Mrs. Everdeen wouldn't even speak to her children, let alone voice her feelings. She did not help her suffering children when they needed her most, and Cato can tell that Katniss will never forgive her for that.

"Do you think it's enough for today?" He asks, leaning against a damp wall. He doesn't really mind though. He won't complain about the condition of the house he lives in when some people in the District can barely afford to keep their house.

"More than enough." She looks up and smiles at her eldest son then continues skinning the small creature.

Cato sighs, then turns his head to see Nuri lying on a blanket in the middle of the small living room. He looks at the corner of the room to see Dabria reading a book about flowers and plants. He smiles at his siblings. Dabria had taken up reading as a hobby, and now, every time Cato walks into a room he always sees a book in her hands. Nuri seems to sit or lie down in random places at different times. They were walking through the Town square once, and Nuri just sat down.

Cato walks over to Dabria in the corner of the room and slides next to her. Cato's surprisingly bulky for someone from Twelve, but he does do a lot of sword practice and carries heavy loads, so he thinks that's the reason. Dabria glances up at Cato and flashes him a small smile before returning her attention back to the book. Right now, she's reading about a begonia flower. On the page, there is a detailed picture of an orange begonia with a description next to it including; where it grows, what colors it can be, where it originated from, and so on.

"You okay?" She asks, glancing back up at him. His hair isn't spiked up, he can barely spike it up that well anyway, so he combs it a little so it isn't as scruffy. He likes it better that way, he thinks it feels more natural than it feels when it's spiked up. His hair isn't shaggy like Nuri's, but it isn't forced like it used to be.

"Yeah. Why?"

"It is reaping, Cato." She replies, rolling her eyes at her older brother. "It's okay if you're worried."

"I'm not it's just - I don't know." He says putting is hands over his eyes and groaning. Dabria shakes her head at her brother. He really is clueless. She flips through the thin pages of the large book until she reaches a familiar plant. There, on the page, is a very well illustrated picture of a Katniss plant.

She holds the book, on that page, in front of Cato. "Is it Katniss?"

He looks at the picture, then nods his head in answer. Dabria thinks that was one of the simplest things she has had to say to get some information out of Cato. She wonders if it's only because there is something really wrong with him and Katniss. She doesn't like that idea, but it could be true.

"What's wrong?"

He sighs. "I need to tell her something, I don't know how to tell her, though."

"You love her." Dabria whispers to him. He never told her, but his little sister could always see it in the way he looked at her, the way his eyes would always light up every time you mentioned her name, or the way he always smiled when he saw her. Dabria always saw it, and she always saw love in her older brother's eyes each time he would talk to Katniss, or even see her walking through Town with her sister, Prim.

Cato looks at his little sister, shocked. He has clearly underestimated how smart this girl is, and now he will never forget it. He quickly glances at his mother who is occupied with preparing their dinner. He looks at Nuri who seems to think that the ceiling is the most interesting thing in the country. He quickly nods his head.

"I do."

"Then what is it?" She asks.

"I-" He pauses, "I-I don't know how to tell her."

"She's fourteen-years-old, I think she'll be able to handle it no matter how you tell her." She tilts his head and smiles at him. "Why don't you tell her after the reaping? That's a good time to tell her how you feel."

He looks down. "What if she doesn't feel the same way?" Cato mumbles.

"I've seen the way she looks at you. You might not be able to see it, but it's clear as day."

"Thank you." He whispers.

She rolls her eyes at him, but smiles nonetheless. "Don't mention it."

Their mother calls them to dinner and they quickly get to their feet and into the kitchen. Nuri takes a seat in between Cato and his mother, and Dabria sits on Cato's right side. They eat they're small portion of rabbit in silence. Dabria may have mentioned it, but no one enjoys speaking of the reaping. Sending a child to the slaughter, or to be more precise, sending twenty three children to the slaughter, and breaking the winner.

Past victors have said that the real winners of the games, are the ones who never leave the arena, the children that die there. Cato partly believes that because he's seen the effect the games have had on a victor. No matter how strong they are going in, they always come out weaker on the other side. The Career victors won't admit it, but you can always tell. How they flinch when a sudden noise occurs, when anything related to the arena happens.

The Taylor family finish their meal and go to prepare for the day ahead. Nuri goes to the small bathroom to rinse himself with cold water, soon followed by Dabria, their mother, and eventually Cato. Once Cato has rinsed, he sees his reaping clothes laid out on his mattress. A white long sleeved shirt, brown pants, and black shoes. Cato gets into them, and walks into the living room to find his siblings already in their clothes.

Nuri is wearing a white shirt, with black pants, and dark brown shoes. His shaggy blonde hair has bee combed so it isn't full of dirt and is neat, falling just above his eyebrows. Dabria is in a grey dress with black shoes, and her hair is lose with a blue hair band for show - not to move her side fringe out of her face. His mother is wearing a blue dress and brown shoes, and her dark blonde hair is tied into a bun.

"It's time." His mother whispers, forcing a weak smile on to her face.

Her children nod, and they leave their small Town house and enter the streets. Many families, many children, are making their way to the Town square for the reaping at this time. The family reach the square within a few minutes, and the children - apart from Nuri, who is still eleven - say goodbye to their mother. Cato and Dabria make their way to line up to get their blood taken, before Cato takes his place in the fifteen-year-old section while Dabria takes her place in the thirteen-year-old section.

Before they know it, Effie Trinket - District 12's escort - is on the stage, talking about the history of their country, Panem. She mentions why she is here, and how the Hunger Games were born. The Dark Days are the reason twenty three children have died every year for seventy-one years. It's the seventy-second Hunger Games this year.

"It has come to a time where we have to pick a courageous young man, and woman, to have the honor of representing District 12, in the seventy-second Hunger Games!" Effie Trinket exclaims, dressed in bright yellow, with a white wig. "May the odds be ever in your favor!"

She clears her throat. "Well, as always, Ladies first!" She strides over to the giant bowl, filled with the names of every single girl in that square. Effie shoves her arm in, then her hands swim around the slips on paper before her hand latches on to one, and she pulls it out. She scurries, quickly, back over to the microphone in the center of the stage. Effie unfolds the slip of paper, a small smile on her face as she says the name.

"Dawn Lucas!" A blonde girl emerges from the seventeen-year-old section and silently makes her way to the stage. The fear inside the girl is building up so much, she surprises herself when she doesn't scream, when Effie gestures for her to make her way up the stairs. Once there, Effie asks for any volunteers. The crowd is silent, besides the sound of the wind whistling through the Town.

Effie nods her head, then walks over to the boys reaping bowl. Once again, she shoves her arm into the large amount of slips, before pulling one out. The escort slowly makes her way over to the microphone, before reaching the center of the stage. She unfolds the slip of paper, a crooked smile on her face.

Effie clears her throat, before saying the name of the unlucky boy. "Cato Taylor!"

Cato stands in the crowd of fifteen-year-olds, stunned. He doesn't show it, though. Cato is still slightly shocked, but he did have his name in that bowl thirty times, so what did he really expect to happen? There was always a small part of him that believed that he might end up going into the games, that's why every time the reaping grew near, he would practice with his sword skills. At this moment, he's glad that he did practice so much with his sword.

He silently makes his way out of the crowd, trying to ignore the fact that, Katniss, his mother, Dabria, and Nuri will be watching, their hearts breaking. He reaches the stage and all he wants to do is wipe the smile off of Effie's white face. But he doesn't,he has more self control than that. He stands near Dawn, and when Effie asks for volunteers, he speaks up.

"Why are you bothering? Do you honestly think someone's going to volunteer?" He says loudly, leaving Effie slightly flustered.

But she manages and presents the District 12 tributes to the nation, and asks Dawn and Cato to shake hands. As soon as they do, they are whisked off to the Justice Building, to say goodbye to their loved ones.

Once in the Justice Building, Dawn and Cato take an elevator to get to their rooms. Once the elevator stops, Peacekeepers send Dawn into one room and Cato into another. There is a red couch in the center of Cato's room, so he takes a seat and waits to see if he will have any visitors. Cato needs to come home, he knows that, he just doesn't think he'll be able to survive in that arena, no matter how hard he tries.

Suddenly, it hit's him. He was going to tell Katniss, after the reaping, that he loved her...

_Well, that proves it_, he thinks. _The odds are sure as hell not in my favor_. He awaits the first visitors, and then the familiar faces enter. His mother, Dabria, and Nuri. All of their eyes are red-rimmed and puffy from crying. He shakes his head. He doesn't care about himself, he only cares about the ones he loves. That's one thing he knows for certain, that he doesn't care about what happens to him, he only cares about his loved ones.

"Don't cry. I guess the odds just weren't in my favor this year." Cato mumbles, looking down.

Dabria just shakes her head at him. "This is the reason I didn't want you to sign up for tesserae, but you did anyway."

Cato looks up at his younger sister. "I did it, so we wouldn't go hungry." He replies through gritted teeth.

"We had food! We didn't need you to sign up for tesserae!" She shouts at him.

"Well!-" Cato gets cut off.

Nuri, standing there, finally loses it and lets it all out. "Enough! Don't you see what's happening, Dabria? Cato's is going into the games! This is not a time to be arguing."

Dabria calms down at her brother's words, before sliding next to Cato in his chair. His mother looks at them, curiously. She loves her children very much, and one of them is being sent to the slaughter. Well, the Hunger Games is basically that. She wouldn't wish it upon anyone, let alone the children who actually have to go through it. The Hunger Games, something her eldest child is being forced to participate in. It makes her die inside.

"You're coming back, son. We need you." His mother states.

"I know."

"Don't worry about us. I'll go hunting everyday and I'll bring Nuri with me." Dabria pauses, looking directly at Cato. "Just worry about getting yourself home." When a peacekeeper opens the door to tell them their time is up, Cato brings his family into a hug, not wanting to say goodbye. But they do leave, which just brings him closer to the games. He lays back in his chair and sighs in frustration. He didn't really know how this sort of stuff happened, but apparently he's going to learn a lot about it.

Suddenly, the door slams open and a particular blonde wraps her arms arms around him. Prim holds him tightly, sobbing into his shoulder. He notices Mrs. Everdeen, - or miss Everdeen - but he does not see Katniss. Prim's mother must notice him looking for Katniss.

"Don't worry, Katniss wanted to speak to you alone."

He nods, then turns his attention back to the girl quietly sobbing on his shoulder. He pats her back, and thinks some things over. He can honestly say he didn't expect this reaction from little Primrose Everdeen. But it's the reaction he received. And Cato is fine, but he never thought little Prim would ever be so attached to him. He thought she just saw his as her sister's best friend and nothing else. Clearly, he was wrong.

"Hey, it's okay." He whispers.

She shakes her head. Prim isn't as naive as people think she is. She is very smart for her age, so she won't believe him when he says that it's okay when it obviously is not. She's a smart little thing really. Compared to many children her age, she is extremely intelligent. So he won't forget it.

"Y-You have t-to promise," She pauses, pulling away to wipe the tears away. "You have to promise that you'll win, and come back home. I-If not for me, do it for Katniss." She stands, searching his face for an answer. His face is blank.

He hesitates, "I-I promise I'll try to win. To come home, I will. I promise." He nods at her, and she pulls a small smile on to her face, before moving to the corner of the room. She's probably too upset to do anything that day. She'll lie with Katniss and Buttercup, and cry for a long time, until no tears will be able to fall.

Prim's mother steps forward, and kneels in front of Cato. He looks at her, expression blank, not knowing what she has to tell him. She knows him well, but he very much doubts she could give him any useful advise. But nonetheless, he waits patiently to hear what the blonde woman has to say, has to tell him at this moment before he leaves for the games.

"Cato, you're a strong boy. I know you don't think you stand a chance, but you do. You have to fight, you have to stay strong, because I don't want Katniss to turn into what I had turned into." She says, looking at him directly in the eye. She doesn't want Cato to die for more than one reason. But one of the reasons, is that she doesn't want to watch her eldest daughter to dissolve into the state she had went into after her husband had died. No one wants that.

"Also, I went to the Hob this morning, and there were pins." She reaches into a pocket that's on the front of her dress. "I thought, since you have your skills with swords, this would be good for you." She pulls out a silver pin, which is two swords crossed over a shield. Mrs. Everdeen pins the shield and swords pin to Cato's shirt. He nods in thanks, then she stands up, saying that she better be seeing him soon, before she and Prim leave the room.

As soon as they do, a familiar brunette charges into the room and he stands up, then she wraps her arms around him. He burrys his head into her neck, inhaling her scent. She smells like the woods, and her own smell, her own personal smell. He strokes her back, but she doesn't cry. He knows she hates people seeing her weak, and this is no exception. He moves to sit down, and she sits down next to him.

"You're coming back, Cato. You are." She says, her voice shaky.

What Dabria told him to do is echoing in his mind and he realizes; he needs to tell her. He might not come back, and the last thing he wants is her never getting to know about how he feels. How he feels about her. Katniss Everdeen. Katniss. His Flower...

He gulps. "Katniss?" She looks into his eyes. "I need to tell you something." Cato takes a deep breath, "Since the day we met, there was always something about you. Something I could never put my finger on, but it was why I wanted to be your friend. I saw you in the Meadow, and I just knew that there was something I needed to know about you..."

He continues, worried. "I started to, um, feel stuff years ago, put I thought it would pass. But... It never did, and it just grew stronger. And I just need you to know that..." He pauses, as he looks at her listening carefully to every word he says. He whispers the last sentence to her, and he knows she hears it.

"I love you."

Shock is written all over her face, but she won't look away. After a minute or so, the shock on her face disappears, and is replaced by something Cato hasn't seen before. Unexpectedly, she leans in and presses her lips to his. He's slightly supervised, but he soon gets over that, and moves his lips against hers. It's one of the best things he's felt in his entire life time, and he wants to remember it. This is what he's fighting for.

She pulls away and leans her forehead against his. Then she whispers something he only ever dreamed of hearing her say. "I love you, too."

Unfortunately, a peacekeeper opens the door and tells Katniss she has to leave. She pecks him on the lips before leaving. Shortly after, two peacekeepers arrive and tell him it's time to go. They escort him to a car where he finds Dawn and Effie, and that car takes him to the train. Once he gets on the train, he takes one last look at his District before moving away from the window to take a seat on the train.

He hopes he can keep the promise he made to Prim. She thinks the odds of him winning are large.

But the odds seem to have a habit of not being in his favor...

* * *

**Okay! This is my longest chapter, and my OH, HELL NO! chapter. I hope you like it! If you read Overload, I might be able to update tomorrow, I couldn't today because I was writing this.**

**And if you've noticed, I name some of my stories after songs. Like Overload - Overload, by Dot Rotten - and this one, Shake It Out - Shake It Out by Florence + The Machine. **

**PLEASE REVIEW! IT IS AMAZING! SO PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, REVIEW! Until next time :D**


	13. Chapter 13

**Shake It Out**

_Regrets collect like old friends _

_Here to relive your darkest moments _

_I can see no way, I can see no way _

_And all of the ghouls come out to play _

_And every demon wants his pound of flesh _

_But I like to keep some things to myself _

_I like to keep my issues drawn _

_It's always darkest before the dawn _

_And I've been a fool and I've been blind _

_I can never leave the past behind _

_I can see no way, I can see no way _

_I'm always dragging that horse around _

_Our love is questioned, such a mournful sound _

_Tonight I'm gonna bury that horse in the ground _

_So I like to keep my issues drawn _

_But it's always darkest before the dawn _

_Shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, ooh whoa _

_Shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, ooh whoa _

_And it's hard to dance with a devil on your back _

_So shake him off, oh whoa _

~Shake It Out, Florence + The Machine

**Shake It Out **

**Chapter 13: The Train And The Glory Of Love **

The fifteen-year-old boy sits on the train, patiently waiting out the journey to the Capitol. Cato sits still, hoping his mentor can help him survive. He doubts it though, considering his mentor will be the one and only, Haymitch Abernathy. Haymitch Abernathy, the victor of the fiftieth Hunger Games. And also a well-known drunk. Without Haymitch purchasing as much alcohol as he does, the Hob wouldn't be able to function.

Cato wonders if he will be able to get any sponsors. He thinks that his strength and build may get him some, but maybe only five or six. He'll be lucky if he gets anymore than that. Haymitch certainly won't build up the amount of sponsors Cato will get. If Haymitch is sober enough to get any sponsors, it will be a miracle. If only this didn't happen, he thinks. But knowing his luck, and he does, if he wasn't reaped Dabria probably would have been.

Cato decides that he'd rather be here than have his little sister having to fight for her life.

Suddenly, thoughts about a certain brunette fill his mind. He knows he has to come home, their are too many people who rely on him. His mother, Dabria, Nuri, Katniss, and even little Prim... How come he became a person a lot of people relied on in a few years? It baffles him how he took on the roll to take care of his family when he was twelve. His mother couldn't take care of the family without a job at the time, so what choice did he have?

He believes that if he doesn't come back to District 12, it will take a while before Katniss, Dabria, and Nuri will want to set foot in it. Because he knows they will see him when they go into the meadow and wriggle under the fence. He saw his father there, so he very much thinks that the they will see him. Dabria certainly will, but she's the second person in line to take care of the family after him, so she will try and stay strong.

She may only be thirteen-years-old, but she has the Taylor blood. They fight for what is right, and walk away from things they believe are not. Everyday when Cato went into the woods, he fought for his and his family's right to live and not to die of starvation. When his family moved to District 12, they walked away from what they thought was wrong; having children trained to participate in the Hunger Games.

Being trained for the games isn't right, but having them in the first place was a cruel idea. Sometimes, Cato thinks about what Panem used to be. He learned that it used to be called North America. But droughts and fires, hurricanes and tornados, and encroaching seas took their toll. Brutal and relentless wars broke out as all of the people of North America fought over the last valuable remaining resources. The earth was bare and deserted and the people were broken and wounded, terrified and hopeless.

But out of the ashes and the wreckage rose Panem, and everything was fine for a number of years. But then the Dark Days came, and a horrible war arose. It ended with a hard-won peace, with twelve defeated districts, and the thirteenth completely obliterated. That was when the Treaty of Treason was written and signed, providing Panem with new laws to live by - laws that would guarantee peace. As a yearly reminder that the Dark Days must never come again, it was declared that on the same day each year, all of the districts would offer up in tribute one brave young man and one brave young woman to fight in a pageant of honor, courage, and sacrifice - the Hunger Games.

The twenty-four tributes are sent to an arena which is outdoors where they, are forced-struggle to overcome both man and nature, and survive against all odds. Each, year the lone victor is supposed to serve as a reminder of the Capitol's generosity and forgiveness. It's how they are meant to remember their past and the mistakes the districts made. This is how the Capitol attempts to safeguard their future.

Cato actually did pay attention in school, even though it really didn't matter. You can't learn anything that will help you in the Hunger Games. And in the school, each year, there are two unlucky students who wish you could learn how to survive. Unfortunately, Cato is one of those unlucky students. He does believe that learning at least some edible plants in school could help those two children who get sent to the arena.

Cato's gaze shifts from the window when he hears something come crashing into the car he, Effie, and Dawn are occupying on the train. He sees that Haymitch Abernathy has come charging in. He looks sober though, despite the bottle of whiskey that s cradled in his hand. Haymitch sees Cato and Dawn and frowns, probably just remembering that it has come to that time of year to send twenty-three children to the slaughter, and one forever be a piece in the Capitol's games. Even though everyone already is, some people just don't know it yet.

Haymitch takes a swig of his whiskey, and sits down next to Effie, who soon inches away from him. Cato snickers; she's so snobby she can't even sit within a meter of Haymitch. Cato notices that the seats are arranged so that the one with Haymitch and Effie on is opposite him, who seems to find that Dawn is on the same seat as him. More like a couch, really.

"So," Haymitch starts. "What do we have this year?" He looks intently at Cato's build and Dawn's hard expression and slightly clenched fist which Cato didn't notice until that moment. Haymitch nods his head after about a minute then says, "Good enough."

"What do you mean?" Dawn spits.

"Do you really want to get into this conversation?" Haymitch states. He reminds Cato a little bit of Katniss. The way they act is actually similar, when you think about it.

"A little. I'd like to know my chances." She responds.

He sighs. "Fine. If you care, the both of you seem smart enough to know not to go into the bloodbath. So, your chances are good, at the moment." He pauses, and takes a swig of his whiskey, then he continues. "Maybe you won't be so good after we watch the reapings." He indicates towards Dawn.

Cato doesn't really care about his chances, really. He believes that he wouldn't stand a chance against a Career - well, a strong one. His chances are probably as good as anyone else. One out of twenty-four. Those odds aren't good for anyone, and everyone in the arena has the same odds. They all have the same chance at winning, even though the Careers probably think that they'll win. Careers normally don't win, but some of them last a while.

Cato is now very glad his family moved to District 12 and didn't stay in District 2. Cato didn't and doesn't want to be a Career.

Effie keeps chirping about how interesting this years games will be, and how exciting it will be to watch and all Cato wants to do is punch her in the face. He never really got a good handle on his short temper. He has a feeling that Effie will continue to annoy him to no end.

"Can we watch the reapings?" Cato says, surprising everyone that he actually said something.

Haymitch nods, "Yes." He looks over at Dawn, who has her arms crossed over her chest. "Now, we'll get a better look at your chances."

They all walk into another car and find a large television hung on the wall, and a long red couch lined with a golden color facing the television. Cato sits directly in front of the television, in the middle of the couch. Dawn sits on his left and Haymitch sits on his right after retrieving the remote. Effie sits at the edge of the couch, near Dawn, but still far away from the tributes and their mentor. Cato wonders why she's the District 12 escort if she is obviously repulsed by them.

The Capitol seal appears on the screen and the anthem plays. First up, District 1. A tall girl, with light brown hair and muddy green eyes, volunteers before the escort has time to read out the name. She introduces herself as Satin Lytle. The boy does the same - he volunteers before the escort can read out the name on the slip. The boy is average height and has some muscle, and he has blond hair and green eyes. He introduces himself as Lux Talesk.

District 2 has two volunteers. A small girl with light brown hair and bright blue eyes, and light freckles across her face - who says her name is Calixte Speare. An equally small boy with blond hair and dark brown eyes lunges to volunteer. His name is Victor Cadence. _Victor_, Cato thinks. _Well, his parents obviously had his future planned out_. The rest go by with little surprises. Cato makes note to keep an eye on any that give him an edgy feel.

Like the black-haired boy from six who smiled a little bit when he was reaped, or the smart looking redhead from ten, and even the small brown-haired girl from three who didn't even seem to care that she was reaped. Cato hasn't seen children like this go into the Hunger Games. He seen the scared ones and the Careers, but that's it. Cato thinks that this year's Hunger Games may be different.

He sees himself being reaped and him saying to Effie 'Why are you bothering? Do you honestly think someone's going to volunteer?' Then, the screen goes black. The Capitol seal appears out of the darkness and the anthem plays. Caesar Flickerman and Claudius Templesmith begin talking about the tributes. They say that they have an interesting bunch this year, and talk about the Careers, the small girl from three, the boy from six, and the redhead from ten.

They mention Cato and say that he has more of a Career build than the actual Careers. It's going to be tough year this year.

"You two should probably have dinner." Haymitch says.

They walk into the dining car and find an array of food spread across a long table. There's soup, bread, stew, and many things that Cato couldn't name even if he tried. He takes a seat and goes straight for the soup. He picks up a green colored soup which he soon discovers is pea soup. He eats it quickly and he knows Dawn is eating quickly as well, due to the way Effie's lips are pressed together in a tight line.

"I would have thought that being from Town you two would have more manners, having more money and all." She states looking completely and utterly disgusted.

"My family doesn't have a father, we don't have money. We're poor. I keep my family alive." Cato states, then rips off of a chuck of bread before shoving it in his mouth. Effie doesn't say anything after that, and Cato is glad she doesn't. He doesn't think he can deal with Effie much longer.

"I'm going to bed." He says after he has finished his dinner. An avox escorts him to his room, and he nods in thanks then scurries into his room. He takes his reaping clothes off, and places the sword and shield pin on the bedside table. He slides into his bed in his undergarments and he is soon lulled into the sweet abyss of sleep. His dreams are filled with Katniss, but not the nightmares that usually visit during the night. What he dreams about is something that actually happened a week before the reaping.

It's him and her lying in the meadow, side by side, like any other time they were. "Flower?"

"Yes?" She says with a smile on her face.

"Sing." Cato grins.

"Sing what?"

"I don't know, something. Sad or happy." He tilts his head to look at the side of her beautiful face.

"Okay." She say. She then starts singing softly her version of a well-known song. "You have to give a little, take a little, and let your poor heart break a little. That's the story of, that's the glory of love. You have to laugh a little, cry a little, until the clouds roll by a little. That's the story of, that's the glory of love." She pauses before continuing with the next verse. "As long as there's the two of us, we'll have the world and all it's charms. And when the world is through will us, we'll have each other's arms."

She sings the last lines quietly, but he still hears them. "You have to win a little, lose a little, and always have the blues a little. that's the story of, that's the glory of love..."

Cato knows one thing. He's coming home to his Flower. And the glory of love is what's pushing him to get there.

* * *

**I haven't updated in a while. Sorry, I really am. I had writers block and moments, and I was recovering from reading the 100th issue of The Walking Dead. Yes I know, I heard The Glory Of Love in the Orphan. It's a good song and an epic movie! Issabelle Fuhrman is in it!**

**Also, I kind of need your help. I was going to have Cinna in this year. But I don't want him to set Cato on fire, or cover him in diamonds. I don't know anything else to do with coal, so if you know anything, PLEASE tell me!**

**PLEASE REVIEW SO I WILL BE INSPIRED! IT HELPS! So please, and thank you for reading this story and reviewing and faving it even though when I started it I didn't think anyone was going to read it. -**** SO THANK YOU!- **


	14. Chapter 14

**Shake It Out**

_Regrets collect like old friends _

_Here to relive your darkest moments _

_I can see no way, I can see no way _

_And all of the ghouls come out to play _

_And every demon wants his pound of flesh _

_But I like to keep some things to myself _

_I like to keep my issues drawn _

_It's always darkest before the dawn _

_And I've been a fool and I've been blind _

_I can never leave the past behind _

_I can see no way, I can see no way _

_I'm always dragging that horse around _

_Our love is questioned, such a mournful sound _

_Tonight I'm gonna bury that horse in the ground _

_So I like to keep my issues drawn _

_But it's always darkest before the dawn _

_Shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, ooh whoa _

_Shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, ooh whoa _

_And it's hard to dance with a devil on your back So shake him off, oh whoa_

~Shake It Out, Florence + The Machine

* * *

_There's a place that I know _

_It's not pretty there and few have ever gone _

_If I show it to you now Will it make you run away _

_Or will you stay _

_Even if it hurts _

_Even if I try to push you out _

_Will you return? _

_And remind me who I really am _

_Please remind me who I really am _

_Everybody's got a dark side _

_Do you love me? _

_Can you love mine? _

_Nobody's a picture perfect _

_But we're worth it _

_You know that we're worth it _

_Will you love me? _

_Even with my dark side?_

~Dark Side, Kelly Clarkson

* * *

**Shake It Out **

**Chapter 14: Dark Side**

The fifteen-year-old boy lies on a metal table in the Remake Centre, hoping the annoying prep team can just be finished with him and leave. The morning he got off of the train was rather uneventful, apart from when he almost hit Haymitch in the face with a knife. Cato could say it was an accident, but even he knows that's not true. After Dawn started shouting at Haymitch about wanting to be able to live for as long as possible, Cato threw the knife so that it would slide past Haymitch's head to get them to stop shouting.

Shouting causes stress, and he already has enough of that for his age.

For the last two and half hours, his body has been stripped of hair. Apart from the hair on his head and his eyebrows. He doesn't feel like himself; he's always covered in hair and dirt, he is never clean. Cato doesn't normally smell clean, he doesn't usually look clean, and he's pretty sure he hasn't felt clean. However, no matter how much he dislikes it he has to go through it, just like the rest of the tributes do.

Venia, a member of his Prep Team, rips the last strip of material from his legs. _Goodbye hair._ Octavia, a pea green woman, and Flavius, with corkscrew orange curls for hair, help him up off of the table. They walk around Cato, removing any unwanted hairs with some tweezers. Once they are done, they smile proudly. Then they all scramble out of the room, calling back to tell Cato that his stylist will arrive soon to dress him.

Cato sits down, with the thin robe hanging over his shoulders, and waits for his stylist to arrive. Cato can't help his curiosity, and wonders what his stylist will look like. They will probably be a color that isn't suitable for skin, and clothes so bright it will end up blinding him. That sounds about right.

All of a sudden, the door swings open and Cato looks to see his stylist. He's the last thing Cato expected. He has dark skin, and plain black clothes. There isn't anything about him that makes him look like he's from the Capitol, apart from the gold eyeliner he has on.

"You must be Cato, I'm Cinna your stylist." He greets Cato, expression blank. Cato has never seen this man before, so Cato wonders what he's doing here. Cinna must be new to styling the tributes for the games, due to the fact that he has never seen him before.

"Are you new? I don't think I've seen you before." Cato states, looking at the man in front of him.

"This is my first year in the games."

Cato snorts. "Join the club."

Cinna raises an eyebrow but then just shakes his head. "Would you like to come into the other room to talk?"

Hesitantly, Cato nods and then raps the robe tightly around him then following Cinna into a room Cato didn't even notice was there. The room is small; but it manages to fit two red couches facing each other. Swiftly, Cato claims his place on one of the seats. Cinna sits in the one opposite him.

The blond boy glances around the room, pure disgust running through his veins. He still can't figure out why this would be a good punishment for a rebellion. If anything, it's much more of a mistake because it only gives the districts of Panem more of a reason to once again rebel against the Capitol. Cato believes that one day, he doesn't know when but he knows it will happen, the Capitol will regret doing this. They will.

"We must disgust you. All of us." Cinna suddenly speaks up.

Cato glances at the man, a blank expression masking his true fury. Of course the Capitol disgusts him, with what they do and get away with, how could they not disgust him? There is probably no way that he will ever stop hating the Capitol, but he could learn to like Cinna. The look in Cinna's eyes says he wouldn't be afraid to set him on fire. But he won't set him on fire.

"I have your outfit for the Opening Ceremonies. Very fitting." Cinna says, after an hour of chit chat.

"What is it?" Curiosity gets the better of him.

"It's bright, but dark at first." Cinna states, attempting to make Cato puzzled.

"What?" Cato questions.

"You'll have to wait and see. But don't be alarmed if you hear a loud noise." Cinna smirks at Cato, but he just starts to become confused. Cato has a feeling that Cinna is putting on a mask in front of the Capitol, and revealing his true nature to the ones he feels comfortable with.

"So, it's ready?" Cato asks, generally interested.

"Yes." Cinna nods.

Cato smirks, "Then what are we waiting for?"

* * *

Later on, Cato is standing next to his chariot waiting for Dawn to arrive. He's wearing a jumpsuit of an unknown color, which is coated in a powder that replicates coal dust. The fake dust spreads across his entire body, including his face. His back feels heavy, and Cinna told him that the thing on his back would open after the chariot started rolling out. The chariot is rather large; larger than what Cato expected.

The horses are a coal black color, and stand proudly at the front of the chariot. He sees the Careers far away, somehow managing to glare at him. Trying to intimidate him. It won't work, due to the fact that the ones from Two are almost half his height, and the girl from One is throwing herself at the boy from One. Lux, Cato thinks his name is. Lux is probably his biggest competition going into the arena.

The others may be skilled with a weapon, but Cato is skilled with three weapons; a sword, knives, and bow and arrows. Katniss said he was as good as her at archery, and she was right. Over the years, Cato's skill with a bow and arrow grew as Katniss helped him learn how to use it. She was a great teacher.

Katniss, as it seems, has probably made his chances grow. If she hadn't taught him some edible plants, and archery he probably wouldn't last very long in the arena. Without the edible plants, he wouldn't survive a day in the arena. He would probably see some berries, and eat them without hesitation. He would die from berries.

_"Cato, what did I tell you?" She inquires, hands on her hips. Katniss is teaching Cato edible plants, so that he can get different food for his family. And not get poisoned._

_He sighs, then mumbles, "Don't go near plants or berries that I have no idea what they are."_

_"Exactly." Katniss nods._

_"Fine. Then what are they? Are they edible?"_

_She shakes her head. "No, never these Cato, this is Nightlock. It'll kill you the moment it touches your tongue."_

_"Remind me to stay away from them." Cato requests._

_"I will." She agrees._

_"What about this?" He points towards a pink plant, standing alone, reaching his knee in height. It's flower is a dark shade of pink, and circling underneath the bright bloom, are some blood red __berries. Cato can honestly say that he has no idea what it is._

_"That... That is Dark Side. The Dark berries will kill you faster than Nightlock." Katniss explains, staring intently at the plant._

_"That's a weird name." He states._

_She shrugs. "Dark berries, Dark Side. I think it's fitting." He smiles, and she smiles back._

"Cato? Cato? Are you listening?" Cinna questions, waving one hand in front of Cato's face.

"What?" He replies, snapping back to reality.

"It's time to get on the chariot." Dawn explains, who has now turned up. She is wearing what Cato is wearing, and is completely covered in the black powder that resembles coal dust. Cato can see the feathers around her neck, down her arms and legs, and notices he too has feathers on him. But he doesn't know what color the feathers are.

He steps onto the chariot, along with Dawn, and gets prepared to face the large crowd of Capitol Citizens. Just as their chariot is about to roll out Cinna calls some words to them. "Remember, smile and wave. Don't worry when there's a sudden noise and the weight on your back will disappear. Got it?"

Cato nods, and then he is facing the Capitol. They move slowly, and just as they're are about to start waving, there is an incredibly loud noise which gains the attention of all of the citizens. All of a sudden, the weight on his back isn't as bad and Cato can feel the black powder sweeping off of him. Cato smiles and waves to the crowd, as does Dawn, and the attention is still homed in on them. Without warning, the crowd erupts into cheers and screams of "District 12!" Cato doesn't know why they're cheering until he catches sight of the large screen with him and Dawn on.

He has wings. He is bright yellow, and the feathers are also a bright yellow, and the wings are coated in these magnificent yellow feathers. Cato soon realizes what the wings symbolize, and he has to fight back tears because of it. He's a bird. He is a canary. They take the canary's into the mines to check if the air is poisonous. That was his fathers job; to take the canary down the mines to check the air.

They are throwing flowers and he catches one that filled one of his flashbacks earlier. It's the flower, Dark Side. He clutches it in his hand as he waves to the crowd with the other and soon they are in front of the president's mansion.

Cato sees President Snow - a thin, white-haired man - and ignores the welcome speech. He doesn't want to hear it.

Then they are being whisked off to the Training Centre, and Cato realizes that the flower he still holds in his hand means more than he thinks. He's going to have to show his dark side to the entire nation, and there's nothing he can do to stop it. Everybody's got a dark side, anyway.

A dark side doesn't seem too bad for him.

* * *

The fourteen-year-old girl sits in front of her television, watching Cato intently. Katniss saw the pain in his eyes when he realized what he was styled to be. A canary. How clueless his stylist must have been. And then she saw him holding the Dark Side, and she couldn't help but think that that is what she will be seeing. Cato's dark side. When he's in the arena he will have his dark side, because he can't be kind and gentle. The one thing he can use to survive.

His dark side.

* * *

**That took a while. That took me almost four hours to write. I thought it would have took ten times longer. Anyway, MORE THAN 100 REVIEWS! That was one of the best moments of my life. I'm gonna thank catnissxforever for the coal dust idea. I just added the canary to make it more emotional, even though it didn't. **

**I'm surprised I even made it home today. I tripped over a chair at school, then when I got on the double decker bus to come home when I went down the stairs to get off, I fell down the stairs, so... yeah.**

**I was listening to dark side by Kelly Clarkson when I wrote this, and so the chapter was born! **

**THANK YOU FOR READING AND PLEASE REVIEW! **


	15. Chapter 15

**Shake It Out**

_Regrets collect like old friends _

_Here to relive your darkest moments _

_I can see no way, I can see no way _

_And all of the ghouls come out to play _

_And every demon wants his pound of flesh _

_But I like to keep some things to myself _

_I like to keep my issues drawn _

_It's always darkest before the dawn _

_And I've been a fool and I've been blind _

_I can never leave the past behind _

_I can see no way, I can see no way _

_I'm always dragging that horse around _

_Our love is questioned, such a mournful sound _

_Tonight I'm gonna bury that horse in the ground _

_So I like to keep my issues drawn _

_But it's always darkest before the dawn _

_Shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, ooh whoa _

_Shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, ooh whoa _

_And it's hard to dance with a devil on your back So shake him off, oh whoa_

~Shake It Out, Florence + The Machine

* * *

_Let s all go on an urban safari _

_We might see some illegal migrants _

_Oi look there s a chav _

_That means council housed and violent _

_He s got a hoodie on give him a hug _

_On second thoughts don't you don't wanna get mugged _

_Oh sh*t too late that was kinda dumb _

_Whose idea was that... stupid _

_He s got some front, ain t we all _

_Be the joker, play the fool _

_What s politics, ain t it all _

_Smoke and mirrors, April Fools _

_All year round, all in all _

_Just another brick in the wall _

_Get away with murder in the schools _

_Use four letter swear words cause we re cool _

_We re all drinkers, drug takers _

_Every single one of us buns the herb _

_Keep on believing what you read in the papers _

_Council estate kids, scum of the earth _

_Think you know how life on a council estate is, _

_From everything you ve ever read about it or heard _

_Well it s all true, so stay where you re safest _

_There s no need to step foot out the burbs _

_Truth is here, we re all disturbed _

_We cheat and lie its so absurd _

_Feed the fear that s what we ve learned _

_Fuel the fire, let it burn _

_Oi! I said oi!_

_What you looking at, you little rich boy!_

_We're poor round here, run home and lock your door _

_Don t come round here no more, you could get robbed for _

_Real (yeah) because my manors ill _

_My manors ill _

_For real _

_Yeah you know my manors ill, my manors ill!_

~Ill Manors, Plan B

* * *

**Shake It Out**

**Chapter 15: Training With Ill Manors**

The fifteen-year-old boy wakes to a shrill voice. It was Effie, to be more exact. Cato wakes to her exclaiming that it's a "Big, big, big day!" It is a big day; at least it is for the tributes. It's Cato and Dawns first day of training. Cato groans, and stands to get out of bed. The day prior been uneventful, but the dinner couldn't of been weirder. Haymitch was arguing with Cinna; well, Cinna was being reasonable while Haymitch was yelling at him.

Cato remembers every word of it.

"You made them get attention!" The mentor stands and yells across the table, while Cato has one eyebrow raised, watching it all as it unfolds. Cato doesn't even know if this is an argument, Cato thinks that it wouldn't make a difference if Cinna was in the room.

"And that's a bad thing?" Cinna asks calmly.

"Yes, because you got the Careers attention!" Haymitch sits down, and takes a swig from a tall bottle whiskey.

"So, it just shows them that they shouldn't underestimate them just because they're from 12." Cinna simply replies, not wanting to have to shout. That's not what he does.

"You don't understand, Cinna." Haymitch shakes his head at the man in front of him. "Cato was from District 2, and he's stronger than most of the Careers. And Dawn, well, she has one hell of a temper. That makes a Career!"

Cato remembers meeting Haymitch when he moved from Two to Twelve. Haymitch was wary at first, but when he saw that Cato and his family didn't want to bring any harm upon anyone in the district, he was fine with the Taylor family. Haymitch bought some of the game Cato killed a few times, but Cato was over paid. Cato tried to say something about it, but Haymitch insisted that he took the money. He did the same for Katniss.

"You're saying that they'll target them?" The stylist asks, catching on to what the mentor means by his words.

"Exactly!" Haymitch finally sighs, letting some frustration leave him.

"I don't think so. They don't know what skills they have, they'll still think that they're worthless." Cinna explains, as Haymitch calms down more.

"You can't be sure of that."

"I know how Careers work. Everyone does. They only target ones that look like competition."

"Cinna, look at Dawn," He points towards the young girl and the stylist does as told. Her face says it all; she's hiding something, and that is enough for the Careers. "She looks like she's hiding something, doesn't she?" Cinna glances back at Haymitch and nods. "That is something that the Careers will see as a threat."

The mentor points towards the fifteen-year-old blond-haired boy. "And look at Cato, right now." Cinna looks intently at the blond boy, and waits for Haymitch to comment. "He's strong, big, and has a look about him. And just look at him! His temper is as bad as Dawns! He just doesn't show it that often."

"They are threats, but they can use that to their advantage." Cinna states, a small smile playing on his lips.

"And how can they do that?" Haymitch asks curiously.

"They can show everyone that they are a force to be reckoned with." The stylist explains.

And now, as Cato gets into his training clothes, he can't help but wonder what it will be like in training. Cato was going to brush up on the fire station; he wasn't the best at starting fires. But there was one thing Cato hoped would be there; they're there in a lot of the games, but not all of them, swords. That's how Cato s going to get through training; no matter what Haymitch says, he's going to practice at the sword station.

He walks into the dining room and finds everyone is seated already. He takes a seat and grabs a bowl of something covered in milk. Cato scoops it up with a spoon and shoves it into is mouth. He continues to do this and for someone to say something. Not a word is spoken. So Cato decides to start a conversation.

"So, what do we do in training?" Cato asks, gaining everyone's attention.

Haymitch clears his throat. "Well, we're doing differently this year. You don't have to show off or hide your skills. It's your choice this year."

Cato smirks, which gets him a few strange glances from those who surround the table.

"Do you want to be coached separately?"

Cato glances at Dawn, "I don't mind being trained together."

"Me neither." Dawn says.

"Okay, so give me an idea of what you can do. Dawn?"

"I can throw a knife. I'm really good at throwing knives. I'm good at throwing a spear, too." Cato has an eyebrow raised at Dawn. "What?" She says, "Oh, it's not like you've never been in the woods, Cato."

"How good?" Haymitch asks, curiously.

"Well, with a spear, I can always get a good hit at fifty feet, fifteen metres and normally a bit longer. Even at a short distance." She pauses, thinking things over in her head then speaking again. "And with a knife. Well, lets just say I never miss."

"What about you, Cato?"

"Well, I'm good at throwing knives. I'm also good at archery, and I'm really good at using a sword." Cato says, looking up at his mentor.

"A sword?" Dawn questions.

"Yes, I have a sword. It's hidden with my bow and arrows in the woods, and my knives are at home." Cato doesn't mention that his bow and arrows used to be Katniss'. They don't need to know and Haymitch will probably know something.

"We can work with that. There's always knives, so that'll work." Haymitch says, almost to himself. "Can you make any traps?"

"I know a couple of basic snares." Cato mutters.

"Yeah, I know one or two." Dawn says.

The mentor nods. "Well, that's the food." Haymitch glances between the slightly worried-looking tributes and sighs. "Don't think I don't know you're hunters. I've seen you both at the Hob." Cato and Dawn share a curious glance, but the they nod at each other.

Not long after, he and Dawn are being escorted to the elevator by Effie. She doesn't take them to the training room; she just takes them to the elevator then wishes them good luck. What a wonderful escort she is, Cato thinks sarcastically. As he enters the elevator he realizes that he has never been completely alone with Dawn. She can't be that bad. On the other hand, sometimes he can be wrong about people.

Like Gale, for example, the day they met, it seemed like Gale hated Cato. But after that, Gale was never rude or unkind towards Cato. It was hard not to like, because he believed that disliking someone who was nice to you would make you a bad person. And Cato is anything but a bad person.

"So, what are you doing?" Dawn suddenly asks, arms folded across her chest as the elevator door closes.

He smirks at her. "You'll soon see."

All of a sudden, the doors open. But not to the training room's floor, but it opens to District 2's floor. The girl - Calixte - stands near Dawn and Dawn puts on a disgusted face. Cato smirks at that; Dawn is making an effort to make people hate her. The boy - Victor - glares at Cato, but it's hard to intimidate him when he's barely up to Cato's shoulder in height. _Where did all the midgets come from?_ Cato smirks at him.

Victor's hands clench into fists, and it looks like he's about to explode. It wouldn't make a difference if he was going to lunge at Cato. Cato could beat him in hand to hand combat any day. Even Dawn could beat him. Victor looks very frail, so he must be extremely skilled with a weapon to be able to volunteer. Calixte has an evil look about her; something to do with her deadly eyes and her evil smile, and Cato can tell that she is definitely not mentally stable.

Luckily, the doors for the elevator open to reveal the training floor. They all step out of the elevator, and Dawn does something that makes Cato laugh. When she steps out the elevator, Calixte tries to push past her, but Dawn pushes her to the ground using only one hand. Well, Calixte is small. The District Two female tribute huffs and pushes herself to her feet and storms into the training room. Cato smirks as Victor trails behind her, looking like a lost puppy.

As soon as Cato enters the training room, he notices one thing; it's humongous. On one wall there is a climbing frame sort of thing with ropes to grip on to. Then there are the stations; the fire building station, the knot tying station, the edible plants station, the spear station, the mace station, the knife station, the archery station, and the sword station, and a few more. He'll be going to a lot of the stations in this room. He thinks he should go to the archery station. He's good at archery, but a little practice wouldn't hurt.

Cato and Dawn have to wait for the rest of the tributes to arrive, as only they and District 2 came down that early. As the tributes flood in, Cato does a quick sweep of the ones that gave him an edgy feel when he was watching the reapings. He looks at the little girl from Three who seems to be extremely bored at the moment. The dark-haired boy from Six has a cruel smile curving his lips and his district partner looks at him like he's crazy. He probably is. And then he sees the smart looking red-headed girl from Ten. She has a curious look on her face, and seems to be eyeing up competition. So when her eyes land on Cato, he smirks at her then she quickly turns her head.

The head trainer is a tall athletic woman with dark skin, and she introduces herself as Atala. She explains that the importance of going to a station like the edible plants station is just as useful if not more than going to a weapon. Then she blows a whistle and the tributes spread out.

"Where are you going?" Cato asks Dawn as he takes a look at all of the stations. The Careers have gone straight for the spears, the knives, the maces, and the swords. Well, they are Careers, no matter what the trainer says they will always go straight for the weapons.

"Hmm... I think I'll go to the knives, yes, the knives. I like knives." Dawn answers, and strolls over to the knife throwing station.

"I think I'll come with you." Cato smirks and Dawn just raises one eyebrow at him.

The pair walks over to the knife throwing station and find the girl from One throwing knifes and they land centimetres away from the dummy s heart. Cato snickers at her, and watches as Dawn picks up an evil looking knife. The District 1 girl, Cato thinks her name is Satin, watches as Dawn gets into the correct position. Dawn throws the knife at the far away dummy and the knife whizzes into it's eye. That has got to hurt.

Dawn turns around and Cato nods in approval, then he takes a knife. It's similar to the one Dawn threw, but it's a bit shorter. Cato quickly gets into a stance easiest for throwing a knife, and throws the knife, aiming for the eye on the dummy that doesn't hold Dawn's knife. And, as expected, the knife hits the dummy's eye, and Cato smirks. He normally smiles; but it's different now. He won't show any weakness, and smiling is on that list.

Cato turns around to see Satin clenching her fists and Dawn is smirking at him. He walks over to Dawn and she says, "That's how District 12 does it."

Cato laughs. "You got that right."

The young boy notices that some of the tributes are sending them envious glares. Some of them - including the girl from Three - couldn't care less. Him and Dawn go there separate ways, Dawn goes to the fire station while Cato heads off towards the knot tying station.

While at the knot tying station, he takes a look at all of the other tributes. He knows what he's doing with knots because of his hunting, so he can take sometime to check on the other tributes. He sees that Dawn has succeeded at making a fire, and she is now heading towards the edible plants station. Now, he looks for the Careers. He finds Victor at the mace station, and sees him swing the mace around and lodges it in the dummy's skull. He may be small but he's got some strength. Calixte is throwing spears at dummy's that are fifty feet away, and the spear always goes through the heart. _District Two is really strong_, he thinks. And Cato also thinks that they are probably mentally unstable. He discovers that Satin is still at the knife throwing station, trying to get the dummy's heart, and failing miserably. And then he sees the District 1 male tribute and also a Career. It's Lux, and he's at _that_ station.

Lux is at the sword station slicing limbs off of countless dummies and slashing through their necks. Cato knows exactly what he's doing. Lux is trying to make the other tributes fear him; so that they know how painfully they will die. But Cato isn't going to die, he's going to kill people to get home. And he will get home.

Lux stands back proudly to admire his work, and smirks as the dummies are replaced. Lux looks around the room, daring anyone to try and beat him at his game. Cato sees it as a window to show Lux not to underestermate him. Cato remembers what Cinna said last night at dinner, "They can show everyone that they are a force to be reckoned with." And Cato has always been a force to be reckoned with.

The District 1 male sees Cato heading towards him and he smirks at him. "Well, well, well, trying to beat me Twelve? District 12 scum, think they can beat me?"

Cato picks up a sword that resembles his own sword back home. "Nope, I just thought it would be fun."

"Then slice them up." Lux says, and he steps back to giive Cato some room.

Cato lets an evil grin appear on his face. "Gladly."

The young boy holds the sword in his hand, and it all comes back to him. It's an extension of your arm. He places another hand on the handle and readies himself. Cato sets his sights on the dummy right in front of him. As quick as lightning, Cato slices off both of the dummy's arms and decapitates it. He then quickly spins to slice another dummy's stomach and slashes it's neck so that it's head spins off of it's body. He does the same with the last three dummies. Slashes their throats, cuts off their arms, stabs them in the stomach, decapitates them, and he plunges the sword deep where the dummy's heart would be.

Cato is sweating by the end of it, but he manages to laugh. He looks over to Lux and his eyes are wider than before and his smirk is no longer on his face. Actually, he seems to have caught the whole rooms attention. He sees Dawn smirk, then it fades and she places three fingers to her lips and raises them in the air. He returns the salute annd Dawn turns her head. The Careers are not all smirks like they usually are. They look angry, and really angry at that.

_Nice going Cato_, he thinks. _Apparently you have a death wish_. But then he rethinks that and believes that he just made himself an unlikely fear to the other tributes. Cato smirks at Lux, thinking the expression he has on his face is hilarious.

"What you looking at, rich boy?" Cato taunts, watching Lux grow angry. "Not District 12 scum anymore, now am I?"

"You'll always be scum."

"No I won't. You're only saying that because you know I'm better than you." And with that, Cato walks over to Dawn, and away from the very angry Career. She's at the edible plants station, an eyebrow raised at him, Cato smirks more than he did at Lux.

"Impressive." Dawn says, while looking at a computer with images of plants and berries on it. She is quickly typing answers into a keyboard and keeps getting them correct.

"Thanks." He mutters, watching the images flash on the screen then soon disappear when Dawn has typed in the answer.

"That's what you've been planning?" She question, eyes on the screen.

"Yeah, why?" He glances at Dawn.

"No reason." She mumbles, "I just thought you would be planning to do something simple. Like with knowledge or something."

"I do know a lot of edible plants, too." He states.

"Do you know everything?" She questions, a small smile on her face.

"Apparently not as much as you." Cato answers, indicating to the correct answers she continues to type in.

"I learned the edible plants from books and pictures," She pauses before whispering "And some from thee woods."

Cato whispers, "Same, but my friend taught me some in the woods."

"Let me guess, it's a girl." Dawn says, quickly glancing at him before returning her attention back to the screen and the keyboard. Cato really doesn't have any idea how she is managing to do it.  
He really didn't think that a short-tempered girl like Dawn would be as smart as she is.

"How did you know?" Cato asks curiously. Unless she's a mind reader or something like that, Cato doesn't know how Dawn would know anything about Katniss in any way possible. He thinks he might be overthinking things.

"I didn't, you just told me." She smirks at him, and he rolls his eyes.

Then the head trainer announces that it's lunch and they all head off to the dining hall. Cato takes some red soup, and he finds that it's tomato soup. He also finds that he likes tomato soup. He takes a seat at a table and Dawn sits oppisite him. He doesn't mind. They talk a little about things, easy subjects like their stylists thier escort and thier mentor and even a little bit about their reaping.

"I saw it coming." Cato says, "I knew something bad was going to happen when I woke up that morning. I thought my friend or my sister were going to be reaped." The blond boy explains and Dawn nods along.

"Same. I actually woke up in the morning and said to my mother, 'Mother, I'm going to get reaped today. Do we have any bread?'" She says with a smile on her face and Cato laughs at her morning before the reaping.

"I didn't do that when I woke up."He whispers, very quietly. "I went hunting, and spent some time with my sister. She told me some stuff that I'm glad she told me." He quickly sips his soup as it is still extremely hot - hotter than what normal soup should be. He doesn't want to tell Dawn what he means by 'stuff'.

And Dawn doesn't pry, so she just nods and continues eating her soup.

"Do you think Haymitch will ever be sober?" Dawn questions, and Cato looks up from his dinner.

"Probably not."

"Then it's good they have lights instead of candles." She mutters.

"Why?" He asks.

"It isn't safe for him to be near an open flame." She says and he smiles.

"How have you dealt with Effie?" Cato questions. The fifteen-year-old boy doesn't know how anyone puts up with her, she's so annoying it's unrealistic. He doesn't know how Haymitch has put up with her for how many years he has.

"I've been imaging someone tying something around her mouth so she can't speak." Dawn says. and Cato eyes her curiously. "What?"

He shakes his head. "I think you have problems."

She smirks at him, and shakes her head at him. "Cato, who doesn't?"

Soon lunch is over and they are heading back to the training gymnasium, returning to the stations. Cato brushes up on his archery. Dawn goes over to the spears and remember that she said that she was good and throwing spears, so Cato watches from a distance. He watches her pick up a heavy-looking spear which she lifts with ease, and she sets her sights on a dummy fifteen metres away from her.

Cato watches as she gets into a good position and launches the spear at the dummy. The spear flies through the air and penetrates the dummy's heart. Dawn stands proudly and has a look on her face that says she dares anyone to cross her. Cato wouldn't. The Gamemakers have seen her and they are chatting frantically while pointing at her and occasionally pointing at Cato as well. Well, the Gamemakers seem to like them, or at least are interested in them.

Dawn catches Cato's eye and he gives her a nod and the salute, which she returns. Cato heads over to the archery station, and smiles when he sees the range of bows. There are targets lined up extremely far away, well, far for someone who doesn't do archery. Cato takes one single arrow and a metal bow, then stands and gets into the correct stance. He places the arrow in the bow, watching the arrow slide into the notch.

He pulls it back, holding the bow tightly with the end of the arrow between his middle and index finger. He releases the arrow and it flies through the air and lands with a 'thud.' Bullseye. Exactly on the dot. He puts the bow down, then goes over to the fire making station. That doesn't take long, so he continues go around some of the stations. Axes, maces, plants, knots, climbing, obstacle. Then after that, the trainer - Atala - announces that the training for the day is over.

The tributes exit the room in silence and head back their floors. Soon enough, Dawn and Cato are having dinner with Effie, Haymitch, Cinna and Dawn's stylist - Portia.

"How was training?" Cinna asks.

"I liked it." Dawn says, "It wasn't too bad."

"It was okay." Cato agrees.

"Did you learn anything?" Haymitch inquires, eyebrows raised.

"Fires and some knots." Dawn replies, eating some bread.

"Axes and some knots." Cato answers, looking over at Haymitch, feeling bored as ever.

"Didn't you learn any edible plants?" The mentor asks.

"We already know a lot of them. And it seems Dawn knows all of them." Cato says, then begins to drink a glass of water.

"What do you mean?" Cinna asks, glancing at the young girl.

"That thing where you type in the name of plant. Dawn got every single one of them right." He explains.

"Did you get any attention from the Gamemakers?"

"We both did. When Cato sliced up every dummy at the sword station, and when I threw a spear through a dummy's heart." Dawn explains, like it was nothing, even though the detail she is going into makes it sound a little creepy.

"Okay." Haymitch says.

The dinner then quickly passes, and soon they are bidding each other goodnight. Cato sees Dawn going somewhere and he asks where she's going. He's just curious, and he's generally interested, because if she's escaping he's coming too.

"The roof." Dawn begins walking up the stairs that lead to the roof, and Cato wonders why she would go up there.

Cato nods, and hesitates before following her up to the large roof. It's dark, but the lights of the Capitol keep it illuminated. She sits down near the edge of the building to face the Capitol's glittering streets, and the loud Capitol citizens that are still walking down the roof.

"Cato, I need to discuss something with you." She says, and he nods and sits opposite her. "Why don't we be allies?"

"What?" He asks, an eyebrow raised.

"Just hear me out." Dawn begins, and Cato listens. "We can help each other out. We're both hunters, and we'd live longer if we were working together."

"I'm listening." Cato says, interested.

"We would run out of the bloodbath, and meet up somewhere. We would be allies until the final eight, then we would go our separate ways." She explains, and Cato sees another aspect of Dawn's personality. She has hope in her eyes, and Cato doesn't know what to make of it.

He puts his hand out to her. "Okay. Allies?"

Dawn takes his hand and shakes it, sealing the deal. "Allies."

* * *

**Because my computer is seriously messed up, a lot of this didn't upload so I had to copy it in. My laptop is seriously F***ed up. I used Ill Manors by Plan B, I LIKE IT OKAY? ****I spent all day writing this chapter, and I think it was worth it. **

**Okay, I don't have to go to school for six weeks, you'd think I'd have more time to write, right? Wrong. Two of those weeks, I'm going on holiday in a cramped caravan with my mam, my dad, my brother, and THREE DOGS. I don't know how I'll be able to spend that much time with my family.**

**And I've been writing books and books that won't work but I still try because I'm not really that smart.**

**Did you like this chapter? Tell me what you think! PLEASE REVIEW! Thanx for reading! PLEASE REVIEW!**


	16. Chapter 16

**Shake It Out**

_Regrets collect like old friends _

_Here to relive your darkest moments _

_I can see no way, I can see no way _

_And all of the ghouls come out to play _

_And every demon wants his pound of flesh _

_But I like to keep some things to myself _

_I like to keep my issues drawn It's always darkest before the dawn _

_And I've been a fool and I've been blind _

_I can never leave the past behind _

_I can see no way, I can see no way _

_I'm always dragging that horse around _

_Our love is questioned, such a mournful sound _

_Tonight I'm gonna bury that horse in the ground _

_So I like to keep my issues drawn _

_But it's always darkest before the dawn _

_Shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, ooh whoa _

_Shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, ooh whoa _

_And it's hard to dance with a devil on your back _

_So shake him off, oh whoa _

~Shake It Out, Florence + The Machine

* * *

_You're far away tonight _

_I haven't seen you in a while _

_It always feels like a climb _

_On this never-ending hill_

_I keep saying wait just one more day _

_But days slowly drift away _

_And I can hold to the memories _

_But they won't hold me in the same way, as you _

_This distance between us has come and cut as clean as, a sharp blade _

_This distance between us has made my heart as weak as, silk that's frayed _

_And I just wanna hold you, hold you, hold you now _

_You're the one that keeps me, keeps me, on the ground _

_And I just wanna hold you, hold you, hold you now _

_Can we turn this knife the blunt way around?_

~Hold You, Nina Nesbitt

* * *

**Shake It Out **

**Chapter 16: A Very Strong Wind **

The fourteen-year-old girl sits in her home, watching the television, trying to ignore the empty space next to her. Cato should be on his second day of training. She didn't realize how much she relied on him, but now she does. Katniss misses Cato, and prays every single night that he will win the games and return home to District 12. The young girl knows he can do it; Cato has an unbelievable skill with knives and a sword. She's seen him practicing with it a few times before the games.

Katniss finds it difficult to even come to the meadow. It used to be the place she sat with Cato, and where they would talk about their families and their day. She wants that back, because she doesn't think she'll last a lot longer. But she'll try, because she has to stay strong for her family, for Cato's, and for Cato. It's the least she can do for him. She make sure that his family is safe and always well fed. And she's been doing that.

She ran into Dabria and Nuri in the woods once. They had a decent amount for a day, but Katniss insisted that she helped them with the food. Dabria almost instantly objected, but there was no way her stubbornness was enough to overcome Katniss'. In the end, Katniss showed them where they could find berries and strawberries, and they thanked her. But Katniss could hear the hollowness in their voices.

How can she blame them? Their brother is competing in the Hunger Games. For their sakes, she ignores the sound in their voices and she made sure they would definitely be full that night. Katniss knows how much Cato's siblings mean to him, and that makes her want to protect them. Dabria is only one year younger than her, but Nuri is still eleven. It seems that bad things happen every now and then to eleven-year-olds.

Katniss has been sitting in front of the television, watching Caesar Flickerman and Claudius Templesmith talk about the tributes. Caesar is dressed in yellow this year. A bright yellow suit, a metallic looking, dark yellow tie, and his hair is slicked back in waves of sunflower yellow.

"Well, you see," Caesar begins. "The Tributes from District Two, Victor Cadence and Calixte Speare, are rather small." The man laughs, and Claudius chuckles along.

"Yes, indeed," Claudius agrees while nodding his head. "But Caesar, big surprises come in small packages."

"Ah, there is also that. And the Gamemakers let out a hint that they are remarkably strong." Caesar states and Claudius looks surprised. But he's not. They do this every year; release spoilers of some sort about the tributes weather it be their strength, their agility, their stealth, their intelligence, or their overall skill.

"And, like every great year, we have a clip to show their strength." Caesar announces, then turns to face a screen at the back as the screen fades into the clip. The clip doesn't last long, but it shows Victor swinging a mace into a dummy's head and Calixte throwing a spear through a dummy's heart. They rarely broadcast this part of training across the nation, but on the rare occasion, they play a video showing a certain aspect of a tribute's skill set.

"I must say, that is impressive! They'll definitely be ones to watch out for in the arena." Claudius continues to boast about the tributes skills.

The presenters chat about the other tributes and Katniss patiently awaits until they speak of the District 12 tributes. Well, just Cato really. Katniss had a weird feeling about Dawn, and she wishes she could warn Cato about it, but alas, that is not possible. She just hopes that Cato will make the right decision. Cato isn't always the best judge of character. He isn't bothered by a lot of people and their personality, and he won't search for anything wrong with Dawn.

He knows people can be bad, but he tends to ignore the little things. The little things that define a child. A person's personality develops in their childhood, and that includes their teenage years. So Dawn could do something small that Katniss would notice, but Cato wouldn't. That's one of the reasons why Katniss lets the tears fall each night for him.

All of a sudden, someone sits next to her on the small seat. Startled, she jumps slightly and flicks her head around to see who the mystery person is. Katniss soon discovers that it's that very strong wind that many know of. Gale. He's looking at her with one eyebrow raised but she just shrugs it off. She's become jumpy ever since the reaping, and she knows exactly why. Which only adds to the point that Cato needs to come home.

Or she might lose it. Actually, might is such a weak word, more like she will definitely lose it. The young girl knows she will, because she really doesn't think she could live without him. But she knows Cato would want her to get on with her life, to move past his death and fight for a better future. But she never promised him that.

"Why are you here?" She asks Gale, as both of them have their attention fixed on the television. They're up to the smart looking girl from Ten.

He shrugs. "You really shouldn't be watching this alone." He responds gruffly.

She quickly nods her head and takes a deep breath. They have finished showing the clip of the District 11 male completing the obstacle course in record time without a hitch. All of the tributes are bigger competition they look. Katniss worries about him all of the time.

Caesar laughs for some odd reason then he begins. "Well, the District 12 tributes," Claudius nods in amazement.

"Yes." Claudius nods.

"Well, we'll start with Dawn Lucas. She shows a lot of promise." Caesar says, his famous fake smile plastered to his face.

"What has she excelled in Caesar?" Claudius asks curiously.

"Well, the edible plant computer test. Every single question was answered correctly." He replies looking shocked at the amount of knowledge that that young girl holds.

"It was?" Claudius says, obviously surprised.

"Yes, she won't be dying from the plants, then." Caesar says.

"Anything else?" Claudius questions.

"Oh, yes. She has an unexpected skill, and we have a clip of that, right here." He says.

Caesar and Claudius turn around in their chairs to face a giant screen to see what Dawn can do. Katniss is very worried now. With Dawn being Cato's district partner, things could get cloudy. And that won't end well, for anyone. The television screen fades into the clip.

It starts with Dawn picking up a large spear without a problem, proving to people that she is nothing like she looks. Even by lifting a spear without a hint of it weighing her down, it shows that she is more than just intelligent, she is strong. Dawn positions herself in front of a dummy which stands fifteen metres away from her, and she takes a deep breath. She raises the spear and takes aim before launching the spear at the dummy.

At the dummy's heart. The spear whizzes towards the dummy, then rips through the dummy and lodges itself where the dummy's heart is. The video is fading out when she responds to a salute that only District 12 knows. So it must be from Cato.

"What the..?" Gale says, eyes narrowed at the screen in front of him.

The presenters fade back on to the screen wide-eyed. No one can blame them after what they just witnessed. Everyone who doesn't know Dawn would probably be sitting at home with their eyes bulging out of their head. Katniss is shocked. She wouldn't have expected anything like that from town. On the other hand, if she didn't know Cato she would be terrified by his weaponry skill set. And a bit of his knowledge.

"Well, I think I speak for everyone when I say we weren't expecting that!" Claudius belows, laughter filling his voice.

"I certainly wasn't." Caesar says, shaking his head.

"Well, she is definitely someone to watch out for!" Claudius exclaims, a smile spread across his pale face.

"She is." Caesar agrees, nodding.

"I think she can throw a spear like a Career, don't you think Caesar?" Claudius questions.

"I do, that isn't a skill you can get in just thee first day of training." Caesar hints.

Everyone will know Caesar is hinting at. That people do have weapons. That some people do train for the Hunger Games, but that only happens in the Career districts. If Dawn is that good at throwing a spear, than it wasn't developed in a few hours in the Capitol. But she wouldn't be training for the games, so there is another reason. Katniss' mind scrolls through many possibilities and she finally lands on one.

_She must be like Cato_, she thinks. Cato lives in town but his family never had any money therefore they couldn't buy food. So he hunts and Dawn must as well. The punishment for hunting is death. But obviously, like Katniss, Gale, and Cato, Dawn would rather die by a bullet in the head than starve to death. It would be much quicker, anyway.

Caesar clears his throat. "Well, it's time to discuss Dawn Lucas' district partner, Cato Taylor."

"Yes."

"We have heard that this boy is extremely strong."

"Yes, and it seems him and Dawn are friends, or maybe in an alliance." Claudius states as Caesar has one eyebrow raised in a questioning manor. Katniss feels a pang of fear and jealously hit her, but she can't figure out exactly why. She believes that she doesn't want to know why, at least not now.

"An alliance?" Caesar says, eyebrows raised.

"Well, the clips show them sending each other salutes across the training room, and I believe it is a salute from District 12."

"I believe it is." Caesar agrees.

Claudius rubs his hand in anticipation. "Now, back to Cato's strength. How strong exactly?"

"Well, you can tell by the amount of muscle on him!" Caesar exclaims, and he's right. Katniss doesn't even know how Cato gained that much muscle, because it wasn't just with sword practice. He always was strong, but the Capitol people are probably surprised by the amount of muscle on him, considering that he's from District 12 and all.

Katniss believes that Cato will continue to surprise the Capitol, the districts, and all of Panem. She knows he will, because she knows a lot about him. Maybe even more than Dabria, but she knows that Dabria can get things out of people. She does it to Katniss, so she would be able to get things out of her brother.

"Yes, but we need some proof, don't we?" Claudius says.

"Yes we do, how about the whole scene?" Caesar says, putting out a hand to the camera.

"All of it?"

"Yes, that shows just who he is, Claudius!"

"Play the whole clip!" Caesar shouts.

The clip starts with the District 1 male - Katniss thinks his name is Lux - standing by the swords, a look on his face that dares people to try to best him. He obviously just cut up all of the dummies at the sword station, because they are being replaced by new ones.

The camera zooms in on Cato walking over to the sword station, then flicks over to Lux before switching back to Cato, as he makes his way over to the sword station. The District 1 male sees Cato heading towards him and he smirks at him.

"Well, well, well, trying to beat me Twelve? District 12 scum, think they can beat me?"

Cato picks up a sword that resembles his own sword. Katniss recognizes it. "Nope, I just thought it would be fun."

"Then slice them up." Lux says, and he steps back to give Cato some room which Cato notices and steps up.

An evil grin appears on Cato's face, then he says, "Gladly."

The young boy holds the sword in his hand, and Katniss can see him focusing. Cato always said it was an extension of your arm, when he was teaching Katniss. She can see that going through his head. He places another hand on the handle and readies himself. Katniss sees that Cato has his sights set on the dummy right in front of him. As quick as Katniss can blink, Cato slices off both of the dummy's arms and decapitates it. He then quickly spins to slice another dummy's stomach and slashes it's neck so that it's head spins off of it's body. He does the same with the last three dummies. Slashes their throats, cuts off their arms, stabs them in the stomach, decapitates them, and he plunges the sword deep where the dummy's heart would be.

Katniss sees that Cato is sweating by the end of it, but he manages to laugh. That freaks Katniss out but then she remembers he has a fake cocky laugh. She didn't know why he had one, but now she does. Cato looks over to Lux and the District 1 male's eyes are wide and his smirk is no longer plastered to his face. Actually, Cato seems to have caught the whole rooms attention. The screen flicks over to Dawn who is smirking, then it fades and she places three fingers to her lips and raises them in the air. The camera lands back on Cato and he returns the salute and Dawn turns her head. The Careers are not all smirks like they usually are. They look angry, and really angry at that.

Cato smirks at Lux, obviously thinking the expression he has on his face is hilarious. The camera switches over to the Gamemakers who have been watching Cato, and they look just as shocked as anyone in the room. Apart from Dawn, Katniss notices, she must have been expecting it.

"What you looking at, rich boy?" Cato taunts, watching Lux grow angry. "Not District 12 scum anymore, now am I?"

"You'll always be scum." Lux spits furiously.

"No I won't. You're only saying that because you know I'm better than you." Cato smirks and walks away as the screen fades into blackness, then the two presenters appear on the screen. To say they look surprised is an understatement.

"Well, that was... Something!" Caesar states his eyes still wide.

"Indeed it was." Claudius agrees.

"By the looks of it, he seems to be just as good with a sword, if not better than Lux." Caesar says.

"What else did the Gamemakers say he could do?" Claudius asks curiously, hoping to get more information about the boy from Twelve.

Caesar shakes his head, while laughing at Claudius way of trying to find out more about Cato's skill. "We can't say that, but they say that he is good in many areas."

"Well, it seems that District 12 is real competition this year." Claudius says.

"Yes, it seems that these little canary's have spread their wings, and are flying away." Caesar replies.

They finish the show there and the screen fades to black, and the television turns off automatically. Katniss smiles. Cato really does have a chance in that arena, and a big chance at that. The odds are slowly moving into his favor. He'll try to come home, and he will fight hard to come home.

"Katniss?" Gale's voice rings out.

"Yes?" She asks.

"You never said he could do... That."

Katniss looks over at him. "There's a lot you don't know about Cato."

There is a moment of silence, but then Gale speaks up to ask a question. "How-how's his family?"

"They're... Getting by. Dabria and Nuri are hunting."

"They aren't feeling well though, are they?" He asks.

"No," Katniss starts, "I haven't seen them smile once, and that was all they used to do."

"You're helping them." It isn't really a question. It's more like a statement. Gale would know that she would do anything to keep Cato's family going. She cares for Dabria and Nuri almost as much if not just as much as she cares for Prim.

"Yes. Dabria tried to say no, but I insisted."

"How are you feeling?" Gale looks directly at her, concern in his voice.

"Cold." She answers, because it's the truth. She feels like a breath of wind has came by and destroyed her heat, put out her fire. She doesn't feel that fire that would build up inside of her anymore, it just feels like a cold wind circling around her. Trapping her in a hurricane. A strong wind, as cold as a cold wind blows. No fire, it has been extinguished by this feeling of emptiness that feels like it will swallow her whole at any moment.

The cold feels like ice. Freezing her, enclosing her in a cold prison with no escape. It's only at this time that she can ever relate to her mother. It's in these moments that she understands what happened to her mother, why she wasn't with them. Because it wasn't her fault, Katniss knows that now. The way she feels makes her feel like she should just crawl up into a ball and never come out again.

The only reason she's still going is for Prim, Dabria, Nuri, and Cato. They need her. Prim has always needed her older sister. Dabria and Nuri don't have their brother around to keep them strong, so somebody has to take over the job. And what would Cato think if she was as broken as her mother was? She will never let that happen to herself because she's better than that. And she is definitely much stronger than that.

"He'll come back." Gale states, with a lot of confidence.

"You can't be sure of that." She mumbles, looking down.

"I can. And he will come back to you, Katniss." He looks right at her. "He'll come back to you, because he loves you."

And with that, he leaves. Katniss can't help but wonder about Cato. She knows he loves her, but how long has he loved her? Weeks? Months? Years? Katniss decides it doesn't matter, all that matters is that Cato comes back home.

Because even if she hasn't told him before, she does love him.

And her heart will break if he doesn't come back.

* * *

**Just a quick little chapter I whipped up. I was tired when I wrote part of this, so if parts of it don't make any sence, then blame it on Revenge being on the TV.**

**I hope you liked this chapter! I needed to write one about how Katniss was doing, and since in training Cato and Dawn will be doing the same thing as last time, I thought this would be a good time to put it in.**

**I went shopping yesterday, and I know it's weird but still I bought two albums. Now That's What I Call Music 82! and Ceremonials by Florence + The Machine. It was totally worth it too! And you'll be amazed by how much One Direction stuff they sell in shops. CDs, DVDs, T-shirts, posters, pens, pencils, pencil cases, bed covers, ect. And I wanted to buy all of it.**

**I have my problems, but it's okay. Because Marvel approves.**

**I know I say it all of the time but PLEASE REVIEW! **


	17. Chapter 17

**Shake It Out**

_Regrets collect like old friends _

_Here to relive your darkest moments _

_I can see no way, I can see no way _

_And all of the ghouls come out to play _

_And every demon wants his pound of flesh _

_But I like to keep some things to myself _

_I like to keep my issues drawn _

_It's always darkest before the dawn _

_And I've been a fool and I've been blind _

_I can never leave the past behind _

_I can see no way, I can see no way _

_I'm always dragging that horse around _

_Our love is questioned, such a mournful sound _

_Tonight I'm gonna bury that horse in the ground _

_So I like to keep my issues drawn _

_But it's always darkest before the dawn _

_Shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, ooh whoa _

_Shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, ooh whoa _

_And it's hard to dance with a devil on your back _

_So shake him off, oh whoa_

~Shake It Out, Florence + The Machine

* * *

_Step by step, heart to heart, left right left _

_We all fall down,_

_Step by step, heart to heart, left right left _

_We all fall down _

_Like toy soldiers _

_Bit by bit, torn apart _

_We never win but the battle wages on _

_For toy soldiers_

~Like Toy Soldiers, Eminem

* * *

**Shake It Out**

**Chapter 17: They Miss Him**

The fourteen-year-old boy watches from the bakery's window as the fourteen-year old girl hastily walks through the town. He knows where she's going, and she is not going to the meadow or the woods. Peeta Mellark watches as Katniss Everdeen pushes past people to get to the edge of town. He notices that her face is full of dread, but not in a bored way, more like in an upset way. The day after the reaping was the worst.

He saw her with a blank expression on her face, almost like the look she had on her face three years ago, when she was starving to death and he threw her the bread. Peeta had never seen Katniss in a worse state than that. Peeta believes that Katniss may get much worse. It's unlikely, but she could go into a state of depression. Peeta's seen it before; weather it be because a loved one has passed or starving to death because they have no food.

It happens.

Peeta just hopes it won't happen to her. He knows that Katniss is strong because of what she does and all that she has gone through. She's a fighter, a survivor, she is a very strong person. But it's hard to be strong if the person you love is fighting for their life.

Yes, Peeta has seen it. He has seen the way she looked at the boy who was from District 2. She loved him, you could tell just by looking at her eyes when she looked at him. It was the same for the boy, except the boy's love for her was much clearer. Peeta knows that Cato is the love of Katniss' life, even if she doesn't know it yet. The pair are very similar. Peeta learned years ago that Cato's father worked in the mines.

He didn't know what Cato's father did in the mines until the opening ceremonies were broadcast across the nation. When Cato saw that he was a canary, you could see the pain in his eyes. At the time, it took Peeta a few minutes to register what it meant. But then, it clicked in place. His father took the canary down into the mines. Cato's father died in the same mine explosion as Katniss' father did. Peeta didn't know what to make of that.

The fourteen-year-old boy found out that Cato hunted along side Katniss. He discovered this when Katniss and Cato came to trade squirrels for bread, and when Peeta got one squirrel, there was a clear hole where a knife had entered the squirrel's head.

And the day prior, he discovered that Cato has some skills with a sword. When it was on the television yesterday, Peeta was surprised. He knew there was something else about that boy, and that was it. He knows that Katniss is going to Cato's house. She does it every day, obviously to check up on the family. He thought about following her once, but he wouldn't know what to say. Well, at least to Katniss.

His mother isn't home, which is good. There is a lower chance of him being hit today. But it's still there. Peeta hears the ding of the oven, and he takes the two loafs out of the oven. His father walks in, and Peeta looks at him in a questioning way.

"Dad, can I take this to the Taylor family?" Peeta asks.

A sad smile appears on his face. "Of course. But go before your mother gets back."

Peeta nods then wraps up the loafs of bread in a towel before quickly leaving through the bakery's door. As soon as he is outside, he slows his pace and walks through the town. He knew where Cato's house was, because he has seen Cato walk into his house before. Peeta has heard his mother complain about the Taylor family, because they live in town but they don't have enough money to even buy one loaf of bread from them.

The young boy might be able to say that he really doesn't like his mother. She's a cruel person, really. Always unkind to those with no money, who can barely survive because of it. Once, Peeta said that she could at least show some sympathy towards them and not hate them because they're poor. He came out of that argument with a black eye. Peeta has learned it isn't one of the smartest things to do, argue with his mother. But if she takes it too far, it's worth the bruises.

Peeta arrives at the door of the Taylor's house and takes a deep breath. He knocks on the door and waits for someone to answer, and soon a young girl answers the door. Peeta can instantly tell that this is Cato's younger sister. She has blonde hair and sea blue eyes, but it's very unlike any of the merchant kids. Her face is similar to Cato's, but it's a lot more feminine considering she's a girl. She looks to be about thirteen to Peeta, but he isn't quite sure.

"Yes?" She asks, no smile on her face.

"Um... I brought bread." He replies and holds the bread out to Cato's younger sister.

She looks down on it, unsure, but then she sighs. "Come on in." Peeta hands her the bread which she accepts with a nod, and she places it in the kitchen. As Peeta closes the door behind him, he can hear faint chatter coming from another room. "I'm Dabria, by the way." The young girl says.

"I'm Peeta." He replies.

"The baker's son, right?" Dabria says glancing at Peeta.

He nods in response. She tells him to follow her into the other room, and he complies. He notices that the house isn't anything like the bakery. The house is cold and damp, and it feels like it's missing something. Peeta believes that it's missing happiness, which has obviously vanished since Cato left for the games.

Dabria leads him into a small room which must be the living room. A small couch is occupied by a woman who must be Cato's mother, and a young boy who must be Cato's little brother. And on an old beaten up couch next to the other, is Katniss. She glances at him curiously, but then her gaze flicks over to Dabria and Katniss raises one eyebrow. Dabria shakes her head then points to a space next to Katniss for him to sit on.

He takes a seat and nods towards the boy, the mother, and Katniss. "You are the baker's son?" The woman asks.

"Yes, I'm Peeta."

"Why are you here?" The woman asks.

"I-" Peeta begins, but before he can finish someone else butts in.

"If it's because you pity us, then you might as well leave now." The young boy says, eyes sharp.

"Nuri, at least try and be nice." Dabria says, eyebrows raised.

Peeta says, "It's just that, I knew Cato, not well, but I had spoken to him." He pauses, glancing at the family. "I brought bread, it's in the kitchen."

"Thank you." The woman says.

"I'll come by tomorrow, okay?" Katniss says ands stands up, glancing around at the family. They nod and she leaves quickly.

"I should go." Peeta says, saying his goodbyes before quietly adding, "My prayers are with your son," then he quickly flees the house. He isn't going home yet. He doesn't want to go home, at least not now. He decides to go to the meadow. As he walks, he thinks that Cato's family were probably not like that before Cato was sent into the games. But of course, they aren't going to be in the best of moods, considering their brother and son is in the Hunger Games.

Peeta counts himself as lucky, as he has never lost anyone to the games. He may one day, but as of this day, he has not. He reaches the meadow, and then he sees her again. She isn't going into the woods, she's just sitting there, staring at the woods. _She looks lost_, Peeta thinks.

He walks over to Katniss and sits down next to her. She's fiddling with a flower in her hands, and Peeta recognizes it as an aster.

"Hey." He mumbles.

"Hi," She replies, looking over to who it is.

Silence fills the air, and Peeta takes this time to think. Everything that has been going on lately has obviously effected Katniss. A lot more than Peeta would ever have thought. _How close were they? They loved each other, were they together?_ Thoughts were running through his head when she speaks up.

"We met here." It takes Peeta only a second to realize that she's talking about Cato. "Seven years ago," She brushes her thumb lightly over the aster's petals. "We've been friends for seven years, me and Cato. He's always been so nice to me, he'd do nearly anything for me." Peeta can see that this could be difficult for her, but he can tell that she needs to tell someone about him. Peeta's a good listener, so he'll listen.

Katniss smiles slightly. "He used to call me Flower. Still does."

"Because of your name?" Peeta asks, curiously, wanting to know more.

"Yes." She answers then sighs. "You've met his siblings, they normally aren't like that." He nods, as she continues to explain, "They normally smile all of the time, and they are always grateful for what they are given. Not now, though." She pauses, then she smiles again. "I still remember the first day I met them. I was nine, and I went to visit Cato. I knocked on the door and Dabria, his sister, answered it with a giant smile on her face. She knew who I was, and I hadn't even met her."

"She was eight then, and their little brother, Nuri, was six. When I got in the house, Dabria introduced me to Nuri. You know what the first thing he said to me was?" She asks.

"No," Peeta shakes his head.

"He said 'Cato's talked about you. A lot.'" Peeta smiles as does Katniss at the story, as it brings happiness.

"They kind of questioned me, but I didn't think it was weird. I thought it was cute." She says.

"He's a good person." Peeta says, looking out into the woods.

"Yes, he is."

"Is there a reason you have that flower, or..?" Peeta trails off.

"Actually," She smiles and looks over at Peeta, "Let me tell you a story." She begins, and he listens intently to every word. "It was my eleventh birthday, and Cato came to my house with flowers, asters actually. Three of them; one red, one orange, and one yellow. Later on, he said 'do you know why I got those colors?' I said no, and he answered with, 'red, orange, and yellow. Like the fire in your eyes.'"

Peeta sighs. "He loves you, you know."

"He told me." Katniss says, barely above a whisper. But she knows Peeta heard it.

"When?"

A single tear escapes her eye. "In the Justice Building."

"He'll come back."

She nods, "I should go home." Katniss stands up and makes her way home, leaving Peeta in the meadow.

He knows that this is the Capitol's fault. No one else, just theirs. If the Capitol hadn't created the Hunger Games in the first place, then Cato would never have gotten reaped. Peeta sits in the meadow and realizes something. Even when you don't go into the Hunger Games, they are all still a piece in the Capitol's games. They are all toy soldiers. Toy soldiers forced into battles that no one wants to fight in.

Katniss enters his mind once more.

He loves that girl, and he hates it when she's sad. When he saw her smiling, it lit up his world. But now, she isn't happy in any way. So Cato Taylor has to win the Hunger Games and come home so that his family and Katniss will be happy again. Peeta has loved that girl since he was five, and he fell under the same spell that Katniss' mother fell under when she met Mr. Everdeen. And what his father fell under. Peeta doesn't care who she loves, all he cares about is her happiness.

And if Cato makes her happy, he won't get in their way.

So, he needs to come home, because without Cato, Katniss is almost as empty as her mother was without the one she loved.

And it breaks Peeta's heart.

* * *

**An update! I did it from Peeta's perspective, don't shoot me. Just saying here, THIS IS A CATONISS FIC. Not a Peeniss (hehehe) fic. I'm also trying to make Peeta a little like he was in the books.**

**Also, this might count as spoilers so just for the warning. I'm not doing the star crossed lovers, because it's all too much. It would make me cry, and that isn't nice.**

**So, you please can you review! I love hearing what you all think, so please REVIEW!**


	18. Chapter 18

**Shake It Out**

_Regrets collect like old friends _

_Here to relive your darkest moments _

_I can see no way, I can see no way _

_And all of the ghouls come out to play _

_And every demon wants his pound of flesh _

_But I like to keep some things to myself _

_I like to keep my issues drawn _

_It's always darkest before the dawn _

_And I've been a fool and I've been blind _

_I can never leave the past behind _

_I can see no way, I can see no way _

_I'm always dragging that horse around _

_Our love is questioned, such a mournful sound _

_Tonight I'm gonna bury that horse in the ground _

_So I like to keep my issues drawn _

_But it's always darkest before the dawn _

_Shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, ooh whoa _

_Shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, ooh whoa _

_And it's hard to dance with a devil on your back _

_So shake him off, oh whoa_

~Shake It Out, Florence + The Machine

* * *

_We level up _

_I'm gonna climb up the levels, go harder _

_Lights flash every time we go past _

_I'll never lose the game, I'm gonna last _

_Collect stars _

_Yeah, we level up_

~Level Up, Sway

* * *

**Shake It Out **

**Chapter 18: Level Up**

The fifteen-year-old boy sits in the lunch hall, talking with Dawn. See, after lunch it's their private sessions with the Gamemakers, and the pair aren't really that thrilled about it. There are a lot of different things they would rather do than go to their private sessions. Alas, they have to go and get a score so that sponsors will have some reason to sponsor them. The only tributes who seem to be excited are the Careers.

But the Careers are probably just imagining that the dummies that they'll rip apart in the private sessions are real, terrified children. That is something that brings a smile to a Career's face. The Careers are very happy about the sessions they will soon be called for, and are already talking about how well they will do. But of course, at least one of them will be displeased with the score they will receive from the Gamemakers.

However, that's only because they won't actually be that good at using a weapon as the others. Cato could safely say that he could stand a fighting chance against one of the Careers. But that could just be wishful thinking.

"What are you going to do?" Cato asks.

Dawn shrugs. "Throw some knives, a few spears. What about you?"

"I'm going to shoot a couple of arrows, throw some knives, and shred up some dummies with a sword." He replies.

She nods then shifts her gaze over to the table in the center of the dining hall. Four Careers circle around the table laughing and boasting about how high their training scores will be. Every now and then, they cast glances at the tributes, but most of those glances are at the District 12 tributes.

"How high do you think their scores will be?" She asks.

Cato looks up from his food, looking over at the Careers. "Eight to ten," Cato says. "Maybe a seven for Satin. She isn't as good with a weapon as the others."

"I think I could get a higher score than Satin." Dawn mutters.

"That isn't hard, she is pretty dense."

"That's true." She nods in agreement.

Cato leans over and lowers his voice to a whisper. "How much do you bet that she'll be killed by a plant?"

"Forget the plant, she'll see a bug, scream and run away, then run off a cliff." She explains with a small smile.

He hesitates for a moment before he nods and smiles. "Nice, really creative."

"Thank you." Dawn says.

Silence settles upon the room as the tributes eat in silence, only to have that silence interrupted by the crackling of the speakers coming to life, echoing around the hall. Loudly, a mans voice comes from the speakers and he clears his throat then announces that it is time for Lux Talesk to have his private session with the Gamemakers. All of the tributes flick their eyes in the direction of Lux as he stands and strides out of the hall.

All of the tributes turn their attention back to the food in front of them, though, not many feel the need to eat, so they shove the food around their plates. The Careers manage to eat, but not a lot. It seems that Satin is looking rather shaky, because the three minutes are ticking away. And soon enough, the speakers ring out, summoning Satin to come to her private session with the Gamemakers. She stands, then leaves.

The tributes filter out of the room, and eventually, it's just Dawn and Cato sitting in the dining hall. When the speakers announce that it's time for Cato, he stands up and prepares to leave and go to the gymnasium.

"You... Throw the spears at the, dummy's heart?" Cato says, with an eyebrow raised.

Dawn snorts. "I will, and you brutally murder some dummies with a sword."

He smirks and she smirks back at him. Just as he's about to exit the hall, she says one last thing. "Make them remember you."

"You too." Then he leaves.

Cato strides into the gymnasium, and feels slightly worried. But it's gone as fast as it came as the Gamemaker's line of sight falls upon him. He quickly walks over to the archery station, and picks up a silver bow and one single arrow. He notices that the bow string is tighter than the one Katniss gave him, but he'll have to adjust. Cato stands in front of the target, gets into the correct stance and positions the arrow in the bow string. Once it's correct, he lets the arrow fly and holds his breath.

When he hears a '_thunk_' he glances to see that the arrow has landed exactly where he wanted it to. Right on the bull's-eye. Cato quickly looks over at the Gamemakers who are giving approving nods, then he trudges over to the knife throwing station. He takes two knives, one in each hand, and throws them at the dummy farthest away. One of the knives goes into the dummy's eye while the other one goes straight into the dummy's heart.

There isn't much time left, so Cato decides to make it count. He swiftly walks over to the sword station, and takes one that is similar in weight and appearance to the one he has at home. He steps into the center of five dummies, and smirks. This is what I'm made for, he thinks. He swings the sword and decapitates one dummy, before quickly stabbing the next one in the stomach and cutting off it's arms and slashing off it's head.

He slices the limbs off of the next one, and plants the sword in it's head, then rips it out. Cato stabs the next one in the abdomen and slits it's throat, leaving it's head barely hanging on. Finally, he stabs the last one in the heart and slices it's head of so quick, it flies nine meters across the room.

The young boy turns to see the Gamemakers looking at him in awe. He's sweating, and he bows before dropping the sword on the floor as they dismiss him. He walks to the elevator and presses the number twelve, and waits for it to reach the floor. He can't help but wonder how Dawn will be doing.

Dawn walks into the gymnasium and feels dread. They've been drinking, but once one of them notices who it is, they're attention fall on her. She sighs with relief and smirks, then strides over to the knife throwing station. Dawn picks up three sharp, long knives which would scare any child, then gets into a simple position far from the dummy she's aiming for. She takes a deep breath before she launches them almost at the same time.

She hears that familiar '_thud_' and quickly admires her work. One knife is lodged in the dummy's throat, while another has landed smack-bang in the middle of it's forehead, as the final knife has imbedded itself where the dummy's heart should be. She quickly walks over to the spears and picks up a thin and extremely sharp spear then sets her sights on one dummy. She throws the spear and it flies through the air.

The spear goes into the dummy, and penetrates it's heart. Dawn smiles, then throws spears at countless dummies before she is dismissed. She leaves the gymnasium and quickly gets up to the twelfth floor, then she sees Cato. He smirks at her.

"Did they remember you?" She asks.

"They won't be forgetting us any time soon." He states, then goes to get changed.

Much later, they are called to dinner, and are in much better spirits than they were before the private sessions. Cato believes he may have done as well as the Careers, if not better. Dawn thinks that she has done extremely well, better than some of the Careers. At least Satin.

"Okay," Haymitch begins. "Exactly how bad were you?"

"Actually," Dawn says. "I did very well."

"What did you do?" He asks.

"I threw some knives and spears," Dawn explains. "The Gamemakers seemed to like it. Worth at least an eight."

"Well, that's good news," Haymitch sighs with relief. "What about you, Cato? What did you do?"

He shrugs. "I threw some knives, shot some arrows and killed a lot of dummies with a sword." Cato says, scooping up a spoonful of pea soup and shoveling it into his mouth. He glances up to see Haymitch giving him a strange look, "What?"

The mentor shakes his head, "I didn't think you'd do that."

Cato smiles and silently chuckles, "What did you think I was going to do?" He looks at Dawn who has a small smile on her lips. "Shoot them?"

"Something close to that," Haymitch says. "Maybe throw a knife at something _near_ them."

"What, you're saying you wanted me to scare them, or something?" Cato asks, thoroughly confused.

"Didn't say that," Haymitch says, trying to justify his statement. "But it was implied."

It's different. Haymitch is hinting at something, something that the Gamemakers fear. Something rebellious. Something for the strongest. Something for a warrior. But Cato doesn't think anything of it. He just thinks that it's just Haymitch trying to make a joke, and a terrible one at that.

But he's not. And Cato has no idea.

But he's just a child. He won't catch onto something about rebellion that easily. Rebellion is basically unheard of for the majority of people inhabiting the districts. Because they know the consequences to a rebellion. And no body would want to find out what would happen as a result, that would be most definitely worse than the Hunger Games. And not a single soul in the districts would be able to conjure up something worse than that.

Later, they all gather around the television, and wait for their training scores to be announced. They watch as the scores flash on the screen, and only a few catch Cato's eye. Lux gets a ten, and Cato knows that he'll be celebrating. Satin gets a seven, and Cato hears Dawn laugh. Victor and Calixte, the Careers from Two, manage a nine. The girl from Three pulls a seven. _Well, that's interesting_. The boy from Six and the girl from Ten both get an eight.

And time flashes by, and the number of the female from District 11 is fading away into the blackness. To Cato, it feels like everything slows down. Obviously it hasn't, but it feels like it to Cato, even though he's sure it's just in his head. Then suddenly, a number flashes on the screen, then disappears almost as quickly as it came. But everyone saw it. Ten. T-e-n. Cato's training score is ten. He wasn't expecting it. District 12 tributes rarely got sixes, never mind a ten.

Everyone in the room begins to congratulate him, then Dawn's number flashes on the screen. Nine. Third best score - technically second, considering two people are tied with a ten, but it's still a very good score.

But at that moment, Cato realizes that it isn't good. Because now he and Dawn are targets. Something to be aimed at. Something to be shot. Something to be hunted. Something to be killed. Targeted. Trapped, like rats. _Odds aren't really in my favor, are they?_ Cato thinks.

He just hopes he won't be the target for the tributes with good aim.

* * *

**I haven't updated in ages. Sorry, I couldn't update on my two week holiday because the campsite we were going to didn't offer internet. AT ALL. Worst two weeks of my life. **

**Also, if you read Overload, you might not want to hear that I have writers block on that. I have it real bad.**

**I hope you liked this chapter and hope you like the next. PLEASE REVIEW!**


	19. Chapter 19

**Shake It Out**

_Regrets collect like old friends _

_Here to relive your darkest moments _

_I can see no way, I can see no way _

_And all of the ghouls come out to play _

_And every demon wants his pound of flesh _

_But I like to keep some things to myself _

_I like to keep my issues drawn _

_It's always darkest before the dawn _

_And I've been a fool and I've been blind _

_I__ can never leave the past behind _

_I can see no way, I can see no way _

_I'm always dragging that horse around _

_Our love is questioned, such a mournful sound _

_Tonight I'm gonna bury that horse in the ground _

_So I like to keep my issues drawn _

_But it's always darkest before the dawn _

_Shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, ooh whoa _

_Shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, ooh whoa _

_And it's hard to dance with a devil on your back _

_So shake him off, oh whoa_

~Shake It Out, Florence + The Machine

* * *

_I stare at my reflection in the mirror:_

_"Why am I doing this to myself?"_

_Losing my mind on a tiny error I nearly left the real me on the shelf _

_No, no, no, no, no..._

_Don't lose who you are in the blur of the stars _

_Seeing is deceiving, dreaming is believing _

_It's okay not to be okay _

_Sometimes it's hard to follow your heart _

_Tears don't mean you're losing, everybody's bruising,_

_Just be true to who you are_

~Who You Are, Jessie J

* * *

**Shake It Out **

**Chapter 19: Sparks**

"And what did Miss Lucas do?" President Snow asks Seneca Crane.

Surrounded by white roses, and sitting at a clear, glass table, Seneca and the President discuss the tribute's training. In the private sessions, of course. So far, they have discussed the skills of twenty-two tributes, and have reached the District 12 tributes.

These tributes interest President Snow; Dawn Lucas and Cato Taylor. He can't put his finger on it, but he knows they are different from all of the other tributes from District 12. So much of what he's found out so far tells him that Cato and Dawn are similar to Mr. Haymitch Abernathy. And that doesn't sit well with the President. There has never been a single tribute that has been what Mr. Abernathy was.

Rebellious. Though Mr. Abernathy may not have known he was rebellious, he still showed the Capitol up. And no one, not even the President himself, - not that he'd do that - can do that. But since Mr. Abernathy did that in the arena, and was then crowned victor, he couldn't be killed. So the President ordered Peacekeepers to kill his family, and those close to him. Such as; his mother, his father, his younger brother and his girlfriend.

They burned down Mr. Abernathy's old house and told him that it was an accidental fire; that no one knew what had happened and that his family and his girlfriend were caught inside, and there were no survivors. But the president knew that Mr. Abernathy knew that was a lie. Haymitch Abernathy was - and still is very smart. So of course he saw right through that, however, he said nothing of it. Because who knows what would happen if he said anything.

"Well," Seneca says. "She threw knives and spears with expert precision. No one is that good without any long term practice."

"Has she been seen on the surveillance cameras around the woods in Twelve?" The President asks.

"Yes," Seneca says, placing a tablet in front of the President. He presses the screen, and footage of Dawn sliding under a hole in the fence surrounding District 12, and creeping into the woods appears in front of them.

"What information do we have on her?" The President asks.

"Well," The Head Gamemaker says, placing a file on the table. "As you know, she's seventeen-years-old, and was born in District 12. She has a fifteen-year-old brother who is named, Ember Lucas and both parents. Thirty-nine-year-old mother, who is named Aqua, and her father is forty-years-old and is named Canace. An-"

"Who has she been seen entering the woods with?" President Snow interrupts.

"On occasions, she has been seen with her father and her brother. But a lot of the time she has been seen with a young man." On the tablet shows a clip of said young man sliding under the fence, just behind Dawn. The boy, who appears to be around Dawn's age, has dark, short, brown hair and grey eyes. From the Seam.

"Have you identified this man?" President Snow asks.

Seneca clears his throat, "Yes, we have managed to identify him. His name is Ash Leote. He's seventeen-years-old, and is often seen entering the woods."

"Have you managed to identify all of her relatives? Family and friends?" President Snow questions.

"Yes President, but she only has one other friend, as it seems," Seneca Crane says. "She's a girl, seventeen-years-old, and her name's Tara Brook."

"Is that all of Dawn Lucas' profile completely checked out?" President Snow questions.

"Yes, it is," Seneca says.

"Well, then lets move onto the next."

"This is Cato Taylor," Seneca says.

"What did he do in the private sessions?" The President questions.

"He threw knives with expertise, shot arrows at the archery station, each a bull's-eye, and tore apart all of the dummies with a sword at the sword station," Seneca Crane says. "This is definitely not the case of picking up these skills in a couple of days."

"Well, have you seen him enter the woods?"

"Yes," Seneca says, like the first time, and presses the screen to see him entering the woods, fairly recently, alone.

"What information do we have on him?" The President questions.

"Well," Seneca starts, placing Cato's file on the table. "As everyone knows, he's fifteen-years-old, and was born in District 12. He has a thirteen-year-old sister who is named, Dabria Taylor, and an eleven-year-old brother who is named, Nuri Taylor. One parent, the mother, she is thirty-seven-years-old, and her name is Burilda Taylor. The father, Caleb Taylor, died three years ago in a mine explosion."

"Who has been seen with him entering the woods?"

"Well, occasionally he is seen with his sister, and sometimes his sister and his brother. But most of the time, for years actually, he has been seen going into the woods with a young girl." Seneca presses the tablet in front of the President, and a clip of Cato sitting in the meadow appears on the screen. Suddenly, a smile breaks out on Cato's face then a young girl comes into view. The girl has dark, brown hair tied into a braid which comes over her shoulder, and she has grey eyes. From the Seam. The girl scurries over to the fence, Cato's hand in hers, then she slides under the fence, and he quickly follows.

"Who is this girl? Do we have any information on her?" The girl intrigues the President. There is something about her that screams_, 'I am more than what I seem.'_

"Yes, her name is Katniss Everdeen," _Katniss Everdeen_, President Snow thinks, _I'll remember that name_. "She is fourteen-years-old, she has a younger sister who is named Primrose Everdeen, and her mother is thirty-six-years-old and her name is Callia Everdeen. It seems that Katniss Everdeen's father died in the same mine explosion as Cato Taylor's father did."

"Very well, then."

"May I ask you one question, President?" Seneca asks.

"Yes, you may." President Snow says.

"Why do you allow these people to enter the woods?"

President Snow sighs. "For the same reason the Games have a victor. Hope. It gives them hope, hope that they will be able to keep their families alive. It's much stronger than fear. So we let them go into the woods, knowing the risks, and they can have their hope. No matter how short lived it is."

Seneca nods in understanding. "You may go now Mr. Crane." Seneca Crane stands, then exits the rose garden.

President Snow ponders the matter at hand. It seems that the District 12 tributes are remarkable. Sparks. The boy more than the girl, but both sparks. Both able to be the spark that slowly turns into a deadly inferno. And that won't end well.

* * *

Somewhere far away in a District called District 12, a seventeen-year-old boy sits behind a honeysuckle bush, hiding his tears from the world. He won't show his weakness. After all, it was how he was raised. Never showing anyone what he's feeling, keeping it locked away in a box deep inside of him that he refuses to open. It's been so long since he's even cried it feels foreign to him. Because he has never been so weak, never felt so hopeless, never seemed so lost.

But it's different for him. Everything went down hill since that God forsaken reaping. He curses Effie Trinket for not just picking the slip next to her name. But he knows it's futile. He also knows that he shouldn't be blaming Effie. He should be blaming the Capitol and their stupid, messed up Games.

However, he'll always hate Effie, and her bright colored clothes and wigs because she represents everything he despises. She acts like the Hunger Games is a yearly holiday that should be celebrated, just by saying that one sentence. "Happy Hunger Games! And may the odds be _ever_ in your favor!"

He knows what she would say to him right now. _"Suck it up. Why are you crying? Did someone mess up your braid, Ashley?"_ He manages to snort out a laugh that mixes in with the new round of sobs coming on. He misses her so much, and it's only been a few days, maybe more.

But Ash doesn't care. He loves that girl and she's never coming back. _Never_. He knows she has a chance, but as awful as it sounds, he wants to mourn her death now; just in case. She has a one in twenty-four chance of coming out of that arena alive. So he doesn't want to be the love strung boy, hanging onto the last glimmer of hope. False hope is a terrible thing, and he doesn't want to be gullible enough to be sucked into that net.

Ash Leote always had to be strong. Though, that's changed now. Because he doesn't care if he seems weak, because he needs to cry.

Suddenly, he hears slight ruffling, like grass shifting. Not caused by wind, though. He quickly wipes away his flowing tears as someone moves behind the bush. The boy that appears before him has a resemblance to someone he has seen before. The boy doesn't even appear to be of reaping age; eleven-years-old, or something. He has scruffy blond hair, and has cool blue eyes, and looks surprised to see Ash here. But Ash sees that he isn't the typical town boy; the hollowness on his face says it all.

"...Hi?" The young boy says.

"Who are you?" Ash says, his voice cracking slightly.

"I'm Nuri. Cato Taylor's brother." Then it clicks into place, and Ash remembers who he resembles. Cato Taylor, the male tribute for District 12, Dawn's District partner. The boy sits down in front of Ash. "Who are you?" Nuri asks.

"Oh. I'm Ash Leote. Dawn Lucas' boyfriend," Ash says, looking down.

"Oh, sorry," Nuri says, giving him an apologetic look.

"No, don't," Ash says, shaking his head. "So, why are you here, Nuri?"

"I-I wanted to get away from my sister and her damn stubbornness..." Nuri mutters and Ash raises an eyebrow.

"Why?" He asks the small boy.

Nuri sighs. "Ever since Cato left she's been acting like he had to. Trying to be strong so our family doesn't fall apart, hunting because Cato isn't there to hunt, and she's shoving away her emotions and trying to act like everything's okay, when its not."

"Why does Cato have to act like that?" Ash asks, curious.

"Well," Nuri gulps. "Three years ago, my did died in a, a mine explosion. He hunted before that, but he didn't have to support us then. He took up the role of feeding our family, keeping us going. My sister did help him, but he didn't really like that we went hunting. I don't know why though."

"How old is your sister?" He asks Nuri.

"Thirteen. Cato started hunting for us when he was twelve, when our father died." Nuri mutters, looking everywhere but at Ash.

"Oh" is all he can say.

"So, how did you meet Dawn? If that's okay." The young boy asks cautiously.

"No, that's okay." Ash says. "It was four years ago. Dawn and I were thirteen. I found her trading game in the Hob and all I could think was, _'what's a blonde girl doing here?'_ So I followed her into the woods and after a while I heard her say, _'you know, if you're going to stalk someone you could at least not trail behind them like a lost cat'_, and I was surprised. I didn't think she had heard me, at all. So, I introduced myself. " He says. "I guess that's how it all started."

"That's nice." Nuri mumbles.

"Yeah," Ash says softly. He clears his throat, and smirks at the boy in front of him. "Does your brother have a special girl?"

He smiles and chuckles. "Well, I think so. There's this one girl who's been his best friend since he was eight and she was seven. I know he loves her."

"How do you know?" Ash asks.

"Well, on the morning of the reaping, him and my sister were talking about it. They thought I wasn't listening, but I was. I think he told her he loved her in the Justice Building." Nuri says softly, a small smile spread across his face.

"I love her, Dawn." The seventeen-year-old boy says.

"I wouldn't worry about her at the moment. I know my brother, and he's probably already in some kind of alliance with her." Nuri explains.

Ash shakes his head. "Sorry, but I don't know your brother. How can I trust him?"

"He's not a back stabber. He'd never do that. He would only try to kill her if it was the two of them left." Nuri says, then stands. "It was nice to meet you, Ash. But I need to get home before my sister has a melt down."

"Nice to meet you, Nuri." The young boy scurries away into the distance, and Ash is oddly confused. Can he really trust what Nuri has said? That his brother wouldn't be a back stabber, that he wouldn't turn on Dawn?

He can't say he wouldn't, but it's the Hunger Games. Kill or be killed. That sort of situation can do things to your mind. Because when it's your life over a complete stranger's, you choose your own life. Unless you are incredibly selfless. But Ash knows nothing about Cato.

He could just be an angry blonde. But on the other hand, so is Dawn.

And so it begins.

* * *

**This is just different. I introduced you all to Ash Leote, the heart broken boy from District 12. *sobs* he just loves her so much! *sobs***

**The Games will start in a couple of chapters, not far away! We still have to get through the interviews before that.**

**Did you like this chapter? Tell me what you think! Please review!**


	20. Chapter 20

**Shake It Out**

_Regrets collect like old friends _

_Here to relive your darkest moments _

_I can see no way, I can see no way _

_And all of the ghouls come out to play _

_And every demon wants his pound of flesh _

_But I like to keep some things to myself _

_I like to keep my issues drawn _

_It's always darkest before the dawn _

_And I've been a fool and I've been blind _

_I can never leave the past behind _

_I can see no way, I can see no way _

_I'm always dragging that horse around _

_Our love is questioned, such a mournful sound _

_Tonight I'm gonna bury that horse in the ground _

_So I like to keep my issues drawn _

_But it's always darkest before the dawn _

_Shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, ooh whoa _

_Shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, ooh whoa _

_And it's hard to dance with a devil on your back _

_So shake him off, oh whoa_

~Shake It Out, Florence + The Machine

* * *

_I dance around this empty house _

_Tear us down, throw you out _

_Screaming down the halls _

_Spinning all around and now we fall _

_Pictures framing up the past _

_Your taunting smirk behind the glass _

_This museum full of ash _

_Once a tickle, now a rash _

_This used to be a funhouse _

_But now it's full of evil clowns _

_It's time to start the countdown _

_I'm gonna burn it down down down _

_I'm gonna burn it down_

~Funhouse, P!nk

* * *

**Shake It Out**

**Chapter 20: Interviews**

The fifteen-year-old boy sits on a couch on the District 12 floor. Today is the day of the interviews, and he is feeling rather nervous. Not because he will be live on television with all of Panem watching, but because if he messes it up he may not get any sponsors. And sponsors are your lifeline in the arena. So far, they have basically worked out that Cato can win the audience over by being himself. Caring. Charming. And maybe slightly cocky.

Cato doesn't like the idea of being himself, since he doesn't really have any friends - apart from Katniss and a couple of guys who talk to him at school - so he doesn't know if he can win people over. Yes, he did that with Katniss, but they were little children back then, and the people in that audience will be far from little children. They'll be grown men and women - monsters that are betting on how long he'll live.

He doesn't want to win over those type of people.

But every time he thinks about just being completely honest in his interview, his family and Katniss flash into his mind and that's what makes him prepare to go through with it, no matter how much he doesn't want to. And he really just wants to tell all of those people what he really thinks of them. Alas, unless he wants his family and Katniss' dead, he mustn't do that. He tries to put his mind off of the interview, but it's all he can think of.

The young boy feels something that is very rare for him to feel; nervousness and fear. Cato has rarely feared anything; the biggest things he fears are losing the ones he loves and his sister. When she has melt downs, anyway. And he has not really felt nervous before, apart from when he told Katniss how he felt about her. Nonetheless, he still feels nervous. He is scared of doing this interview, because he has to get it right.

People in District 12 call it the final interview. Because twenty-three children will never have another interview. And there is a strong chance that Cato will end up just being another figure for the amount that will have that final interview. He doesn't like those odds. However, no matter how bad the interview will be, Cato is determined to get through it and earn some sponsors while doing so. He can get through that, he's coped so far.

So he has a lot of time to take up. He thinks he's just going to take a trip down memory lane.

_"You need to learn!" The thirteen-year-old version of Katniss yells from her branch on the tree. _

_"Why?" Cato - at the age of fourteen - asks from the lowest branch. _

_"Because, it's important!" She retorts, climbing slightly higher. _

_"How is climbing trees important?" He dares to leap onto the next branch up and miraculously lands, unscathed. _

_"Because you can get eggs from the nests in the trees!" _

_"What's so special about eggs?" Cato questions with a frown. _

_"You've never had eggs?" Katniss sounds shocked. _

_"No, I haven't." Cato states, as he heaves himself up onto the third highest branch. _

_"I have. I don't really eat them much. Prim dislikes the idea of eating baby birds." Katniss says, sitting on a high branch, swinging her legs. _

_"That sounds like Prim," Cato agrees as he carefully climbs. _

_"You can't get all the way up here, Cato," the young girl says, shaking her head. _

_"Oh yeah?" Cato has an evil grin on his face as he scales another branch. _

_"Seriously Cato, the branches won't be able to hold your weight," she says, smiling as he slips slightly, then gets a grip on the branch. _

_"Did you just call me fat?" He asks in a hurt tone of voice. _

_She laughs lightly, "No, it's your... Muscle." _

_"My muscle, huh?" The young boy grins up at Katniss as he manages to climb onto a branch that just holds his weight. Cato decides not to go any further up the tall tree. He's about three quarters up the tree while she is basically at the top. She jumps down a few branches so that she's on the branch just above him. _

_"Told you," Katniss says with a triumphant smile. _

_"It's only because my beautiful muscle is weighing me down." _

_"Right," Katniss says sarcastically. _

_"You know it's true," says Cato. _

_"Yeah, keep telling yourself that." Katniss answers. _

_"Don't have to if I know it's true." _

_"Damn you, Cato."_

He smiles at the memory. It was that day, a year ago, when Katniss had insisted that he should learn to climb trees. And considering the position he is in at the moment, he's thankful that Katniss Everdeen is extremely stubborn. He believes if that girl wasn't so stubborn he wouldn't have as good of a chance that he has for coming out of that arena alive. If he ever does get back to District 12 - not in a box - he'll be sure to thank her.

Cato owes that girl his life. He's already got so much resting on him to come home, and he can't let the terrors of the arena consume him. He's seen the broken victors emerge from the arena, and they are never the same person who went in.

In years to come, he doesn't want a video tape being played of him killing one last child while Caesar says that one thing he says as videos of tributes turning into victors. _"That moment, when a tribute, becomes a victor."_ He doesn't want that. But on the other hand, Katniss doesn't want him to die, Prim doesn't, Mrs Everdeen doesn't, his mother doesn't, Nuri doesn't and Dabria doesn't want him to die in that arena. They want him to come home - once again, not in a box.

He'll leave for District 12 once again, and he won't doubt his choice once.

_"Why are you leaving?" The small, young girl with long, brown hair, big, brown eyes and freckles littered across her nose asks as they stand in his too-large house. _

_"We don't want to train." The eight-year-old Cato replies easily. _

_"Why wouldn't you want to train?" The girl exclaims like not training for the Games would mean you would be burnt at the stake at midnight. Something like that._

_"Because. We don't, Clove." _

_"Fine." Clove relents grumpily. "Where are you going? What District? Four, I would think." _

_For a girl so young, she's rather smart. "No..." Cato sighs, already knowing that she may have a meltdown. "Twelve." _

_"Twelve!" Clove shouts angrily, and Cato swears that the whole District must have heard her. "Why Twelve! Why would you want to live with scum?" _

_"They aren't scum..." Cato feels rage building up inside of him, but he forces it back down. "Anyway, what's so bad about Twelve? Is it that they don't have enough food to survive? Or is it that they don't train their children to go and get themselves killed in an arena?" _

_"It's an honor to go into the arena." She growls as he places his sword and knives in a box. _

_"Clove," Cato begins, exasperated. "I just don't want to have to volunteer. I don't want to train, Dabria doesn't and Nuri doesn't. My mother and father don't want us to train." Cato has never wanted to train for the Games. That's why he didn't have friends at all, except Clove. It didn't make any sense why Clove was his friend when it seemed she was the most eager out of all the children her age to get into the Academy. _

_He doesn't talk to Clove about the Hunger Games, or training, or the Academy, because it makes him feel sick to the stomach. But every now and then, Clove would bring it up, and start talking about one year in the Hunger Games that there was a male tribute from Three that was so badly injured that there was blood pouring out of every orifice. Cato knew it amused Clove every time because he would always turn a little green. _

_"You're not sane, they've brainwashed you!" Clove points accusingly at him with anger spread across her face with narrowed eyes. _

_"Did you really say that?" Cato says, fuming. "I'm the sanest person in this room! And you're the brainwashed one!" _

_"I'm brainwashed?" Clove puts a hand on her heart with wide eyes. _

_"Yes! You think getting yourself killed is a good thing!" He shouts at her. "That killing other children is an honor!" _

_"It is!" _

_"It's not!" Cato retorts. "Taking a life, Clove. Think about it. Not an honor, not something to be proud of." _

_"No..." She mutters, shaking her head. __"Then I guess we aren't friends." _

_Cato shrugs his shoulders. "Not like I'd see you again. Not that I'd want to." Clove nods angrily and heads towards the door. "Clove?" _

_"What?" She spits. _

_"You're dead to me." _

_For a moment a flash of hurt crosses her face, but then she quickly covers it up with a mask of indifference and pure hatred. She storms out of his room and slams the door, only to do the same to the front door when she exits the house._

Cato shakes that memory out of his head. He had been cruel to Clove, but it was a moment of weakness. He was being stubborn, but so was she. She was adamant that killing children for entertainment was a good thing, and it annoyed Cato to no end. She could of at least showed a little sympathy, but no, she would laugh when a tribute died a horrific death and she kept on saying one thing:

_"The more blood, the better."_

He knew Clove was sadistic and extremely messed up in the head. She was definitely not sane, as she would claim. He would bet that she still is sadistic and insane, and probably a lot worse by now, after many years in the Academy. He wishes he had gotten through to her that day, but he knows now that he probably did not.

A familiar voice snaps him out of his stupor. "It's time to get ready for your interview." Cato stands up and follows Cinna into one of the seven layers of hell.

* * *

Cato is standing behind Dawn, watching the television overhead. The interviews are about to start and he doubts that he'll pay much attention to the apart for Dawn's and of course, his interview. It's crucial that he should pay attention in his interview.

He is wearing a black suit lined with yellow feathers, hair spiked up like how he sometimes has it at home, a yellow shirt covered in barely noticeable feathers along with black shoes and a dark yellow tie. His sword pin is on his black jacket - it's gold so it matches his suit. Dawn is dressed with the same theme. A bright, yellow dress covered in feathers goes down to her feet and flares with only one strap over her left shoulder. Her hair is left down, with small, yellow flowers woven into it. She wears high heels, but not so high that she'll topple over.

The theme tune plays in as Caesar Flickerman appears on the screen above them. Cato zones in when he shouts, "I believe we must begin! Now, our first tribute! Is she as soft as the fabric of which she was named? Lets find out! Satin Lytle!"

Satin walks on stage in a gold satin dress that is too short. Cato rolls his eyes at her. It's obvious what she's trying to do; win over the audience over with her looks. Cato can't speak for the rest of Panem, but it isn't working on Cato. But it seems to be working on the audience. The cheers and screams of joy prove that. Cato doesn't pay attention to most of her interview, but he tunes back in when Caesar asks her if she's prepared.

"I'm very prepared Caesar."

Cato hears a snort in front of him. "Please, the only thing she's prepared for is to die because of her own stupidity."

Once Cato realizes it's Dawn, he barks out a laugh. Tributes look at them, mostly with glares, but Dawn smiles sweetly and Cato puts on his most innocent face possible.

Soon, Satin is off and Lux is on, speaking proudly of his skills to murder with various different weapons. "I'm a machine on a mission and I won't stop until it's accomplished."

Lux stands and Caesar raises his hand in the air. "Ladies and gentlemen, Lux Talesk!"

Cato watches as the tributes pass by and only remembers few sentences from their interviews. Caesar says to Calixte if her height will be a problem and she replies, with a smirk, "Caesar, don't you know?" Caesar asks her what and she answers with, "big surprises come in small packages." When Victor is on, Caesar asks him if he'll be able to live up to his name. "I will. I'm brutal and deadly, and I'm ready to win this thing."

The little girl from Three - Cato learns her name is Electra - says that her chances are as good as anyone else's. She says, "I'm fast on my feet, real fast, if I can run they can't get to me," she explains. "They won't be able to kill me." She even looks bored at this moment. District Six was different. The girl was ditzy and funny, but the boy - Cato finds out his name is Trev - is all smirks when he speaks to Caesar. "I'm not what I look like, Caesar." Trev explains with a proud smirk. "What do you mean, Trev?" Caesar leans forward with a grin playing on his lips. "Oh, I'm full of surprises." His interview is soon over and Cato ends up seeing the girl from Ten - Cato learns her name is Rhian - stride onto the stage, a look of confidence across her face. When Caesar asks what she plans on doing in the arena, Cato listens intently. "I'll access the situation I'm in and work out a solution for success."

Before Cato knows it, he's watching Dawn go up on stage smiling widely and waving. She shakes Caesar's hand then sits down, placing her hands on her knees. "Well Dawn, when you came in on that chariot, I was in a daze."

"Why thank you, I have Portia and Cinna to thank for that. They are amazing stylists," Dawn smiles, a genuine smile, looking out at Cinna and Portia.

"You and Cato, you looked like hell angels!"

"Who says I'm not a hell angel?" Dawn sends the audience an evil grin. They laugh, as does Caesar.

"I wouldn't doubt for a second that you weren't!" Caesar exclaims.

"So Dawn, that training score. Nine. Very well done!"

"Why thank you, Caesar," Dawn nods with a smile.

"You're welcome. Now, give us a hint at how you got that." Caesar leans forward eagerly.

"It was certainly not what you would expect," Dawn says with a fake twinge of nervousness in her voice.

"Oh, c'mon Dawn!" Caesar puts a hand over his heart - well, where it's supposed to be, Cato doubts he even has one - and a look of genuine sadness crosses his face. "Details!"

"Sorry Caesar, I can't tell you that," she says with a shake of her head.

"Oh, it couldn't hurt!" Caesar exclaims. _On the contrary, Caesar,_ Cato thinks. _It could get her killed_.

"I'm afraid my lips are sealed shut."

"What a shame," he replies. "Now Dawn, I couldn't help but notice your dress. You look like a Canary!"

"Thanks to Portia and Cinna."

"Would you mind spinning for us?" Caesar asks enthusiastically.

"I think I will." Dawn grins almost animalistic, then stands on strong legs.

The seventeen-year-old girl moves over to the center of the stage as the crowd falls into silence. With steady feet, Dawn begins to spin slowly, and the result is beautiful. The hem of the dress is glistening and gleaming as feathers move to form a feather-like inferno, if that's possible. Feathers spread wide, circling her as she spins, the yellow feathers falling all around, leaving a strip of black going across the dress from the shoulder to the hip. When she stops spinning, Dawn laughs and staggers back to her seat with Caesar gripping on to her arm.

"There you go," Caesar says with a smile. "Now, let me ask you one last question. When you were reaped, a young man came into view. He looked to be your age and he had dark hair. Do you know him?" The screens in the back showed a silenced video of the reaping, where the camera managed to catch a glimpse of a young man with a pained expression over his face.

Dawns gasp of recognition states that she knows him. She gulps loudly and says in a soft voice,"yes, I do. His name is Ash."

"If I may ask, what is your relationship with him?"

"He's my-y boyfriend."

"Oh," Caesar says with a hint of sadness. "Then I'm sure you'll try your best to get home to him."

"I will. I won't give up. For him."

Caesar smiles then stands, grabbing Dawn's had and raising it in the air. "Ladies and gentleman, Dawn Lucas of District 12!" Dawn strides off stage and then, the moment Cato has been dreading has now arrived. When he hears his name called, he can barely breathe. But then he sees the faces of his mother, Dabria, Nuri, Prim and Katniss flashes before his eyes and he suddenly finds the strength to go up onto that stage and power through the interview. He breathes deeply, plants a fake smirk on his face, then walks casually onto the stage.

Caesar shakes his hand and Cato sits down to face the audience. The faces of hundreds of games-hungry people mold into his vision and he feels pure revolution. But then he remembers what he's doing, why he's there, who he's doing this for, and then he manages to stop himself from attacking these people.

"Welcome Cato." Caesar greets with a plastic smile.

"Thanks, good to be here." Cato replies smoothly.

"Now the Capitol must be such a big change from District 12. What's your favorite thing about the Capitol?" Caesar asks.

_Hmm_, Cato thinks. _I wonder if it's the people who like to watch children die. Or is it the drinks?_ "Well, I guess it's the drinks."

"The drinks?"

"Well, they're different! It's kind of just water back in District 12. I hadn't even had wine until I got here." Cato explains. "I think I had a bit too many, though."

"You aren't saying you were drunk, now are you Cato?" Caesar says with a knowing grin.

There's silence as Cato's face turn normal. "I don't think it's in anyone's best interest that I answer that question, Caesar." Cato's face breaks out into a smirk when the audience burst out laughing. Caesar is chuckling along with them, obviously loving the not-depressed District 12 tributes, unlike the usual.

"Well then, I believe that you liked the drinks. Is there anything else that's different?"

"Well, the temperature is different."

"Temperature, what do you mean?"

"Well, in District 12, if it's cold outside it's cold inside and if it's hot outside it's hot inside." The fifteen-year-old boy explains. "But here, you can change the temperature with a press of a button... How is that normal?"

"I believe you get used to it, Cato." Caesar grins and the audience chuckles lightly.

"I did. But once, I was cold so I went to turn up the heat to make it warmer. I turned it up, only a little bit. Then it was like I was living in hell with the amount of heat!" Cato grins. "Worst part though, Effie Trinket burst though the door and started screaming at me for not having enough good manors to ask anyone if I could turn it up!"

Caesar chuckles with the audience, and it stretches even longer when Cato adds on, "I mean, she really needs to get her priorities right."

"Now Cato, I must say that you look rather fantastic in that suit."

"Are you hitting on me, Caesar?" Cato exclaims with wide eyes jumping back in his seat. The Capitol crowds laugh and Caesar laughs and shakes his head as in 'no'. "Well, the suit is nice. But of course, I have Cinna and Portia to thank for that."

"Of course," Caesar nods and laughs. "Cato, about your training score. A ten. That is remarkable!"

"Thank you, Caesar."

"Your welcome. Now you aren't going to tell us how you got it, are you?"

"I'm afraid I can't. But I can say, well, like Dawn's, it was obviously very unexpected." He grins when he hears the Gamemakers chuckles from their balcony over the audience and puffs out laugh that he had to let go of.

"Shame, such a great shame." _No Caesar_, Cato thinks. _The real shame is that my family and the girl I love have to watch me die on television._ "Then let me show you a tape."

On the screens in the back, he sees a film of a familiar place. Home. District 12. The town square. Then he's watching himself being reaped. Then, what had not been broadcast to the entire nation started playing. This is the ones they show in the Capitol, not the Districts. The camera slides over to his mother and brother, who look like they'll break down at any moment, Mrs. Everdeen and Prim next to them - Prim almost in tears - then over to Dabria's shocked face with her being comforted by her best friend, - Louise Cole - then most unexpectedly, Gale's angry and slightly pained expression, and finally the one that breaks him.

Katniss is standing next to a girl - who Cato recognizes as Madge - with some tears running down her face. Katniss had rarely cried; and it broke him to see the confused, pained, lost and the worst of all, the heart-broken expression that was coated over her face, as her stormy gray eyes raged with emotion, but still glazed over with pain as tears streamed down her now-pale skin that she would not wipe away.

They had done it.

The Capitol had gotten more than what they wanted. They broke him.

Cato could feel a few tears pooling in the corners of his eyes but he furiously blinked them back, refusing to look weak. When the video fades out, Cato's face s blank and a mask of indifference. He can't lose it now, no matter how much he wants to. So he just sits there, waiting for Caesar to ask him another question.

"Cato, if you don't mind, could you tell us who the first four people were? The people not up for reaping?" _Mother, Nuri, Mrs. Everdeen and Prim._

"Well, the first two were my mother and my brother, Nuri." Cato's voice is slightly shaky, but he continues. "The next two are basically family to me. I call the woman Mrs. Everdeen and the little girl is called Primrose. But everyone just calls her Prim."

"The girl with the blonde hair?" _Dabria._

"My sister, Dabria."

"Yes, what about the boy?" _Gale._

"Well, his name is Gale Hawthorne. I honestly thought he didn't like me at all." Cato explains. "I guess his opinion changed..."

"Finally, what about the girl at the end?" _...Katniss..._

"Well, Caesar, that is the girl I love." 'Aw's emit from the audience and Cato wants to do nothing more that to ram a knife down their throats. "Her name is Katniss Everdeen. We've been friends for seven years, now."

"Have you told her you love her?" Caesar asks.

"Yes, in the justice building."

Caesar leans forward, a sympathetic smile on his face."Did she say it back?"

"...Yes..." Cato mutters before he a look of confidence comes over his slightly paled face. "And I'll do anything I can to get back to her."

"I wouldn't doubt it for a second." Caesar confirms then stands up bringing Cato up with him, raising Cato's hand into the air. "Ladies and gentleman, Cato Taylor of District 12!" Cato smiles as the crowd cheers then he walks off the stage, Caesar and the crowd not knowing that her heart broken face is still in his head.

And it tears him apart.

* * *

The fourteen-year-old girl sits in the Taylor's house, watching the interviews unfold in front of her. Mrs. Taylor had invited the Everdeen's over, to watch the interviews. They didn't want to deny a broken woman at this sort of time. Dabria's best friend - Louise Cole - came over to be there for Dabria, something she admitted she wasn't good at. Louise is Dabria's age, and has jet black hair that was pulled back into a pony tail, with bright blue eyes. Her father was been from town and her mother was from the Seam.

Shortly after the arrival of Louise, Nuri's best friend - Owen Bryson - had came over to keep Nuri company. Owen is Nuri's age and he has dark blond hair that is almost brown and glittering blue eyes. He doesn't live far from Taylor's, so he does visit more often than Katniss would have thought. Nuri tends to go over to Owen's house instead of Owen coming over to the Taylor's. Katniss doesn't know why, though.

When Cato comes on the stage, her heart stops. He looks absolutely stunning. He is wearing a black suit lined with yellow feathers, hair spiked up like how he sometimes has it when he was home, a yellow shirt covered in barely noticeable feathers along with black shoes and a dark yellow tie. His sword pin is on his black jacket - it's gold so it matches his suit. Katniss' mother told Katniss she gave him the pin, just so she would know where it came from.

Katniss smiles when she sees Cato's familiar smirk. It pulls at her heart strings and makes her miss him even more, because she might not ever see that smirk ever again. She tries not to think about it that much. When Cato makes a joke about drinking and Effie Trinket, the house fills with light laughter, the first sound of happiness there has been in the house since Cato left for the games.

The laughter is louder and even harder when Cato asks if Caesar was hitting on him. But it left as they started talking about the training score he received. A ten. Cato takes the compliment and he nods and says thanks. Then they play the video of the reaping. When it's over Caesar asks him questions, that Katniss knows he doesn't want to answer.

"Cato, if you don't mind, could you tell us who the first four people were? The people not up for reaping?"

"Well, the first two were my mother and my brother, Nuri." Cato's voice is slightly shaky, but he continues. "The next two are basically family to me. I call the woman Mrs. Everdeen and the little girl is called Primrose. But everyone just calls her Prim."

"The girl with the blonde hair?"

"My sister, Dabria."

"Yes, what about the boy?"

"Well, his name is Gale Hawthorne. I honestly thought he didn't like me at all." Cato explains. "I guess his opinion changed..."

"Finally, what about the girl at the end?" "Well, Caesar, that is the girl I love." 'Aw's emit from the audience, and Katniss is momentarily pained in every way possible. He means it, she can see it in his eyes."Her name is Katniss Everdeen. We've been friends for seven years, now."

"Have you told her you love her?" Caesar asks.

"Yes, in the justice building." Katniss feels the eyes of everyone in the room looking at her, but she doesn't care.

Caesar leans forward, a sympathetic smile on his face."Did she say it back?"

"...Yes..." Cato mutters before he a look of confidence comes over his slightly paled face. "And I'll do anything I can to get back to her."

"I wouldn't doubt it for a second." Caesar confirms then stands up bringing Cato up with him, raising Cato's hand into the air. "Ladies and gentleman, Cato Taylor of District 12!"

When Cato walks off of the stage, all Katniss wants to do is scream down the halls, she wants to break the plates, she want's to tear the Capitol down. The Capitol, which probably used to be a wonderful place, but not anymore. Now it's filled with evil clowns, that send the districts evil smirks behind the invisible glass that separates them. Katniss Everdeen wants to do nothing more than burn it down.

She wants to burn it down.

She wants it to fall, to crumble and tumble down like a house of cards.

"Katniss...?" She hears Nuri say, breaking her out of her anger-filled bubble.

"Yes?" "Um, well, d-" Louise cuts him off.

"Do you really love him?" Louise asks with wide eyes.

Katniss smiles as much as she can even though she knows it looks forced. "With all my heart."

* * *

She'd seen the reaping. She'd seen _him_ get reaped. In all honestly, she believed he deserved it. For leaving his District for a District that was scum. For leaving the place that had been his home. For leaving her all alone to fend for herself. But then she heard that his father had died, then she though that that could have been enough. But he deserved more.

But there's another part of her that doesn't blame him. Because if his parents wanted to move to another District and take him with them, how could he stay? He couldn't. Because he would have to go the Home. And as much as she hates to admit it, District 12 would probably better than the Home. On the other hand, anywhere would be better than the Home.

The Home just looks like an orphanage on the outside. But it can't compare to the horrors that lurk within. The Home has a suspiciously large amount of child deaths each year. The people who work at the Home always say they're accidents, but everyone knows that's not true. But the officials look past it and pretend that nothing had ever even happened. They always do that and she doubts that they'll ever stop.

The Academy thought that since these tributes had lived in the Home most of their lives, that they would stand a strong chance of seeking victory, earning glory. But she knows better. By the slight spasms that were causing the girl's hand to shake. Or the mask of indifference on the boy's face when he thinks no one is looking.

But she thinks _he_ stands a chance.

She doesn't know why she does, but maybe because a small part of her doesn't want to lose him. After all, she had lost him once, but not for good. But now there is a huge possibility that he'll die in that arena, and he'll never see the light of day again.

And for some unknown reason, that terrifies her.

So when she is done training for the day, and has finished watching the interviews, she walks into room and holds her silver crucifix necklace tight in her hands then gets down on her knees, illuminated by the soft glow of the full moon cascading light though the thin curtains.

Then she does something she has never done before.

She prays. She prays for his family, she prays for his bother, she prays for his sister, she prays for his mother, she even prays for that girl he talked about in his interview, but most of all she prays for his life. As much as she would get beaten for it, she doesn't want him to die. Even after how their friendship ended, she doesn't want to see a boy who was once her best friend die.

So when Clove climbs into bed, she stares at the crucifix necklace now sitting on her bedside table. A church is rare, but they're still somewhere. Every Sunday she has went there, and visited. But she has never prayed while being there.

Most people think religion is completely false. But it's nice to have something to believe in, even if it's wrong, even if it doesn't even exist.

Because with belief, comes hope.

Hope that she won't get beaten too bad tomorrow, hope that she won't have to be tortured for believing in something, hope that one day she can figure out who she really is - who she'll really side with in this messed up world.

Hope that her only ever best friend won't die.

* * *

**I'm sooooo sorry for not updating! I know I have no excuse, but I'm going to use some, anyway. 1. School started up again, it's slightly better than last year but it's still bad. 2. I got the Hunger Games on DVD. I don't think I even have to explain that one. **

**I added in a few more characters, some of them will become really big, some may not, I don't have this story planned out. But I kinda know where it's going!**

**THANX 4 THE AWESOME REVIEWS, FOLLOWS AND FAVS!**

**I hope you liked this chapter! Please tell me what you think of it! Next chapter they're in the arena! PLEASE REVIEW!**


	21. Chapter 21

**Shake It Out**

_Regrets collect like old friends _

_Here to relive your darkest moments _

_I can see no way, I can see no way _

_And all of the ghouls come out to play _

_And every demon wants his pound of flesh _

_But I like to keep some things to myself _

_I like to keep my issues drawn _

_It's always darkest before the dawn _

_And I've been a fool and I've been blind_

_I can never leave the past behind _

_I can see no way, I can see no way _

_I'm always dragging that horse around _

_Our love is questioned, such a mournful sound _

_Tonight I'm gonna bury that horse in the ground _

_So I like to keep my issues drawn _

_But it's always darkest before the dawn _

_Shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, ooh whoa _

_Shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, ooh whoa _

_And it's hard to dance with a devil on your back _

_So shake him off, oh whoa_

~Shake It Out, Florence + The Machine

* * *

_Well it was just a dream, just a moment ago _

_I was up so high, looking down at the sky _

_Don't let me fall _

_I was shooting for stars, on a Saturday night _

_They say what goes up, must come down _

_But don't let me fall _

_Don't let me fall _

_Don't let me fall _

_They say what goes up, must come down _

_But don't let me fall _

_Don't let me fall_

~Don't Let Me Fall, B.O.B

* * *

**Shake It Out**

**Chapter 21: Fallen**

The fifteen-year-old boy wakes to a cool and calm voice. He is surprised. He was usually woken to a shrill voice telling him to get up so they'll stay on schedule. But it's a different voice this morning. But then Cato remembers what day it is. The day they go into the arena. Cato shakes his head, stretches and sits up to meet Cinna's cool gaze. There's a hint of sadness in them, and Cato can tell he's upset about what's going on.

That he and Dawn are going into the arena.

"It's today, isn't it?" Cato says as he climbs out of bed and gets changed into something to wear to go to the building under the arena. Where they get cleaned up for the slaughter. Where they get prettied up only to have their clean skin get coated in blood.

"Yes," Cinna replies with a small nod.

Cato groans, "I was hoping it was just a dream."

"Well, I'm having a feeling so was Dawn." Cinna says when they walk into the dining room to find Dawn playing with her food.

"Eat," Cato says to Dawn. "You need to keep your strength up."

So she does. As does Cato. Eating enough food to keep their strength up, but not too much that they would be slowed down or feel ill in the arena. Words aren't spoken, until Dawn brings up something that has been bothering her all night.

"Can you swim?" Dawn asks out of the blue.

"Swim?" Cato looks at Dawn as she nods her head. "Yeah, I can. I'm alright at it, why?"

"Because, we're going into the arena and, who knows? There might be water." Dawn explains with a shrug. "A lot of water."

"Normally if there's water, it's around the Cornucopia." Cato says with a shrug.

"So basically, we have to be ready to run _and_ swim." Dawn says with a twinge of annoyance in her voice.

"Yeah, basically."

The rest of breakfast is past in silence, no one wanting to embrace the fact of their imminent death. Or if they're lucky, one of their deaths. Before Cato knows it, he and Dawn are boarding the hovercraft and getting the trackers put in their arms. Dawn ends up sitting next to Satin - just her luck - while Cato sits next to Lux. Cato isn't sure, but he has a feeling that someone had them sit in these seats on purpose.

The whole trip is spent with Cato and Dawn having conversations - using their eyes - with Cato sending Dawn glances that basically say, _'are you okay?'_ or _'we can get past the bloodbath'_ or _'how have you not __killed Satin yet?'_ Cato stops doing that when Dawn sends him an irritated glance, basically telling him to shut up.

When the hovercraft lands, the Careers laugh proudly. Cato sees Dawn looking at Satin, smirking. To him, that basically says, _'keep laughing, just wait until I ram my knife down your throat.'_ They end up in their private rooms, and when Cato gets to his, he sees Cinna waiting for him.

He hands Cato some light weight clothes with boots that barely weigh anything. Cato looks up at Cinna curiously. "It doesn't absorb water."

"So there'll be water?"

"Apparently so," Cinna nods. "Go take a shower."

Cato quickly has a shower and it clears his mind of unwanted images so that he can focus on the real problem. He and Dawn had discussed their strategy the night prior. They would run to the Cornucopia and grab light weight items and a backpack. Dawn had said she would get the weapons while he would get the backpacks, no matter how much Cato objected. He has now decided that he'll just go with Dawn's plan.

Because if one of the factors fail, then everything else will just fall apart.

They will flee the Cornucopia and head to the nearest means of shelter. If there is no shelter, then they'll just run, and run fast. They will part ways at the final six - it was until the final eight, but they think that waiting until the final six will be better - and then may the odds be ever in their favor!

Cato puts his tribute arena clothes on and steps back into the room where Cinna is sitting at a table. He stands and walks over to Cato and pins something to the tight jacket. Cato looks at it curiously before he realizes what it is. The sword pin Mrs. Everdeen gave him in the justice building, his District token.

Cato looks up at Cinna with a grateful expression."Thank you."

Cinna nods. "It barely got through the the checks. They thought it could be used as a weapon, but eventually, they let it slide."

"I got it from..." Cato mutters as Cinna looks at him, urging him to continue. "I got it from the mother of the girl I love."

Cinna smiles. "Then we'll make sure you get to give it back."

Suddenly, there is a loud voice echoing from the speakers saying that tributes should get into their tubes. For the first time since Cato arrived in the Capitol, he feels fear. Cinna nods at him, tells him that if he was aloud to bet he'd bet on him. Cato get's into the tube, then feels it rise and he closes his eyes when he feels the fresh air hit his face. Then, his fears are confirmed when he hears the water sloshing over his pedestal.

Cato can form one clear thought. _It would help to have the wings right now, Cinna._ "Let the seventy-second annual Hunger Games begin!" Claudius Templesmith's voice booms from the speakers from some unknown position.

He manage to catch Dawn's eye three pedestals down, and she nods at him, before she turns her attention to the Cornucopia in the middle of the tributes' circle. As the sixty second countdown begins, Cato surveys his surrounding. The Cornucopia lies on a bed of lose rocks to slow the tributes down. At the side farthest away from the tributes, the rocks turn into sand then it turns to grass before tall trees come into view, and Cato can take comfort in one thing.

There are woods.

The woods are his comfort zone, and from what he's heard, Dawn is somewhat comfortable there too. Cato's eyes land on the Cornucopia when there's twenty seconds left of the countdown before the real Games begin.

20... _Keep calm._

19... _Keep focused._

18... _I won't fall._

17..._ I won't fall to pieces._

16... _Neither will Dawn._

15... _I won't freeze in time._

14..._ I'll keep going._

13... _Gale, keep Katniss safe._

12... _Maybe even Bread Boy._

11... _Forget the past._

10... _Keep up with the present._

9... _Keep up._

8... _Start._

7... _Keep up in the chase._

6... _I might be hunted down._

5... _Or I'll hunt someone down._

4... _Like a wolf._

3... _A predator._

2... _A beast._

1... _A monster._

Let the Games begin.

Cato dives off of his pedestal and into the water as quickly as possible. He's slightly relieved that it's likely that most of the tributes won't know how to swim, apart from the Careers. But swimming, Cato assumes, would be in their Career training. So he plows through the water with one goal only:

To reach the backpacks dotted around the Cornucopia.

It's what Dawn said he should do, so why question it? Cato is gasping when he reaches the pebble covered land, though, he quickly gets to his feet and grabs two backpacks. For some reason, the Careers haven't noticed him. He sees that they are going after the tributes who are trying to swim, and failing terribly. Cato turns his head when he feels a great force yank his arm, nearly causing him to lose him balance.

"C'mon, Taylor!" Dawn shouts, pulling him along to the grass. He soon gets the idea and starts sprinting off towards the woods, with Dawn right next to him. It seems like it takes ages to reach the woods, when in reality, it only takes them a minute.

Nonetheless, they keep sprinting through the woods until they think it's safe enough to stop. They aren't gasping but they are slightly out of breath. Their stamina is truly amazing. Cato looks through the backpacks and is generally surprised with what he finds. In both backpacks, there are two razor-sharp knives, a litre of water, a thin sleeping bag and a packet of some food Cato has never heard of before, by all he knows is that it's a lot of meat. Some genetically enhanced meat that won't go bad until after a week. The Capitol obviously wants these Games to be long.

It feels like a dream, it doesn't feel real to Cato. It feels like he's up in the sky, watching everything unfold. Maybe he was, but then he came plummeting back down to the earth, falling through the clouds, through the air, before hitting the ground. He doesn't really know why he's here. _Because the odds aren't in your favor, eejit._ There should be a parachute to save him from the fall that he'll endure when reality really sets in.

"Here," he says, passing Dawn one of the backpacks. She accepts it with a nod and hoists it onto her back. "What did you get?"

She grins at him. "A sword and a spear."

He laughs breathlessly, taking the sword that is in a scabbard, and ties it around his waist, tightly. "There's some food, water and knives in the packs."

"They want a longer Game of chess," Dawn says.

"Yeah."

"Do you want to give them one?"

_No_. That's the first thing Cato thinks. Obviously, Dawn knows his answer will be this, but he doesn't dare say it. He wants the Games to be over as soon as possible, but that would mean more killing. He doesn't want that either.

But his answer is still no.

"Thought so," she smiles, and begins walking aimlessly away in a random direction.

He picks up his pack and jogs to catch up with her. "I didn't answer."

Dawn shakes her head. "Your silence speaks volumes, Cato."

* * *

The cannons have just begun.

The sound echoes around Cato's head, louder than the screams he usually hears at night in his dreams. Nine. Nine of them are dead in one day. Careers normally get a lot more than that. Cato was hoping that the Careers would take out as many as possible before he had to. But he still has to now. A small part of him - minuscule, to be completely honest - wishes that someone had killed Dawn in the blood bath, just so their would be no chance of him having to kill her.

_Coward._

It's what he feels like. A coward. He doesn't even know why he feels like a coward. He's in the fricken Hunger Games fighting for his life and he feels like an utterly hopeless coward. He hasn't killed himself yet, just to have an easy escape route from this hell that he'll endure over the next few weeks. Or shorter. So, why does he feel this?

"Careers are sloppy this year," says Dawn.

"What?" Cato asks.

"The Careers," says Dawn from the branch on the tree opposite him. He's never seen these types of trees, but they hold their weight, so he doesn't mention it. "They normally kill a few more. Ten's been the least amount killed in a bloodbath."

"Well, Satin is in the Careers, so it decreases the kills they get."

"Point taken." Dawn carves _'Dawn Lucas was here'_ with one of her two knives into the trunk of the tree, just for the fun of it.

"What exactly are you doing?" Cato asked.

"Carving _'Dawn Lucas was here'_ into this tree," she can almost here the laughter from the Capitol audience at this moment.

"Well, hurry up. It'll get dark soon," Cato explained. "Have you had anything to eat?"

"No."

"You should."

"I'm not hungry."

"You should at least have a little. To keep your strength up," Cato explains.

Dawn relents and settles on having a few strips of what she thinks could be beef, with small sips of her water. She'll conserve her food and water so she won't run out that easily, so she'll have some food and water for as long as need be.

When darkness falls, the Capitol anthem plays and they play pictures of the fallen tributes. The first face is, surprise surprise, Satin Lytle.

"Well," states Dawn. "I think we can safely say that we all saw that coming."

The next face is the District Three boy, then both from District five, the boy from Seven, the boy from Nine, both from Ten, then the boy from Eleven. The only name he knows from the fallen tributes is Satin, none of the other eight he can identify. But he can picture one thing, their families crying over their loss, the fact that they'll never see their children again. Cato thinks the boy from Eleven was only thirteen.

Too young to die.

"You okay?" Dawn's voice whispers. "You know, aside from the fact that nine kids just died."

"I guess," says Cato. "I'll get through it."

"You better," says Dawn. "I don't want to have to kill you because you're so depressed it ends up annoying me."

"Should one of us keep watch?" Cato ignores her last statement.

"No," Dawn shakes her head. "We'll be alright for tonight. Careers are too heavy to get this high and we're well concealed."

"Okay," Cato pulls out his this sleeping bag and lays it out in front of him. He leaves his backpack on his back in case of an emergency, and also keeps his sword on him. He slides into his sleeping bag and basically hugs the tree, so he won't fall out.

"Night Taylor," he hears Dawn whisper through the darkness.

"Night Lucas." Cato says, closing his eyes. He twist and turns, but sleep won't come to him. Eventually, he finds that he's rather warm, very warm, so he slips out of the sleeping bag and shoves it in his backpack, before settling against the tree once more, clutching onto it for dear life.

Then, he drifts into the sweet abyss of sleep. His dreams - he doesn't have any. It's slightly ironic how his nightmares have stopped when he's in something that should cause horrors to ingrain themselves into his head and never leave. Nightmares when he's safe, none when he's in grave danger.

Cato would say it was one of the best sleeps he'd ever had.

If he hadn't been so rudely woken.

The sound wakes him up, but he doesn't open his eyes, thinking this rushing sound is all just in his head. But it's not. It's too loud to be just in his head. It sounds too real to be just in his head. He hasn't heard this sound before, but for some reason, the smell of the thing creating the noise is familiar. But he can't link it to anything else. It's the rushing sound that alerts him, the volume increasing immensely.

His eyes fly open just as the first wave blows him from the tree.

* * *

**Ooooo! Cliffy! Not really. Just a short introduction to the Games. I'll make my excuses for not updating. 1. I'm an idiot. 2. I'm writing two books for fun. 3. I get writer's block. 4. I've been ranting about this show called 'Hollyoaks' because there is this crazy b**ch who might drop her baby off of a building 5. I discovered Divergent.**

**Divergent. It's an amazing book. I've only read the first twenty chapters, but I NEED MORE. I orded it from amazon a few days ago, AND IT HASN'T CAME.**

**_RANDOM HUNGER GAMES THING WITH ME:_ I went to the library in school with two of my friends, kay? And when I walked over to drop my bag on the ground, the librian - that makes him sound old, he's only 26 - was talking to this girl and I heard "... Yeah, it's supposed to be better than the Hunger Games."**

**Then I was like, I just froze, dropped my bag, then went "WHAT?!" ****He was like, "This book, Gone, it's meant to be better than the Hunger Games." I just went , "No, no it's not." Then I went and read Mockingjay, and randomly quoted the trilogy to freak my friends out.**

**PLEASE REVIEW! IT MEANS SO MUCH TO ME! I'm glad that you care to review, fav and follow, I really apreciate it. TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK!**

**I also so have a new Catoniss moto: "Sometimes you just have to say 'screw canon,'" PLEASE REVIEW!**


	22. Chapter 22

**Shake It Out**

_Regrets collect like old friends _

_Here to relive your darkest moments _

_I can see no way, I can see no way _

_And all of the ghouls come out to play _

_And every demon wants his pound of flesh _

_But I like to keep some things to myself _

_I like to keep my issues drawn _

_It's always darkest before the dawn _

_And I've been a fool and I've been blind _

_I can never leave the past behind _

_I can see no way, I can see no way _

_I'm always dragging that horse around _

_Our love is questioned, such a mournful sound _

_Tonight I'm gonna bury that horse in the ground _

_So I like to keep my issues drawn _

_But it's always darkest before the dawn _

_Shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, ooh whoa _

_Shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, ooh whoa _

_And it's hard to dance with a devil on your back _

_So shake him off, oh whoa_

~Shake It Out, Florence + The Machine

* * *

_It's a little too late to say that you're sorry now _

_You kicked me when I was down _

_But what you say just (don't hurt me) that's right, it (don't hurt me)_

_I don't need ya(no more) don't wanna see ya (no more)_

_B***h you get no (love)_

_You showed me nothin' but hate _

_You ran me into the ground _

_But what comes around goes around (around)_

_Don't hurt me (that's right) you don't hurt me (and I don't need ya) no more (Don't wanna see ya) no more _

_B***h you get no love (no), no love (no), no love (no)_

_No love B***h you get no love (no), no love (no), no love _

_And I don't need ya (no more)_

_B***h you get no (love)_

~No Love, Eminem ft Lil Wayne

* * *

**Shake It Out**

**Chapter 22: Nothing But Hate**

The fifteen-year-old boy doesn't know much at the moment. He knows his name. Cato Taylor. He knows where he lives. District 12. And he knows where he is. In the seventy-second annual Hunger Games. And he knows one other thing as well:

He can't breathe.

There's something suffocating him, and he doesn't know what it is. Another tribute? No, he would have been able to fight against one of them. Is it some heavy force squeezing all of the air from his lungs, making his lungs burn? Possible. Very possible. But that doesn't explain what's carrying him away, making him warm. It's too warm. Every time he opens his mouth, water floods in. That's when it hits him.

_Water, it's water!_

His eyes fly open to see that he is nearer to the surface than he expected. With the last shred of strength he has, he drags himself to the sweet air above him. He's gasping for air, forcing his lungs to restart, when something grab his legs; which were in the process of flailing about, trying to keep himself afloat. The force isn't strong enough to drag him down, and whatever it is, it's nearing the surface.

"What the...?" Dawn comes up gasping and panting, trying to get as much oxygen into her as possible.

Cato's main concern is keeping himself afloat. Because if his energy gives out, he'll sink to the bottom. And if he sinks, he'll die. He can't die. The water's pace is slowing down, gently, then suddenly, it's as if all of the water is being sucked away, because it's gone in an instant. Dawn and Cato fall a few metres and hit the ground with a thud. Cato groans as his elbow directly hit the surface of the now-wet dirt below them.

"Either," Dawn starts, coughing. "My dreams are really messed up, or we almost just died."

Cato spits out some water, heaving it out of himself. "Of course we almost died. We're in the Hunger Games, if you don't remember."

They see where they are. Right at the edge of the woods.

Both of them may not survive the day.

* * *

Haymitch sits on a couch on the District 12 floor, watching his tributes recover from also being drown. He's proud of them for surviving the bloodbath, but he's even more proud of the fact that they aren't treating each other as animals that need to be hunted. That takes a certain aspect of rebellion to be able to not be from a Career district, and become allies. It's rare that there are alliances outside of the Careers, and when there are, they don't go unnoticed.

He still hasn't worked out which one he's going to save, so he'll leave it to fate. If they happen to be the final two, then he won't have to decide. It's hard for Haymitch to decide. He hasn't had to decide for years, and he feels utterly heartless just throwing one of them away to die.

So he weighs out the factors. He grabs a piece of paper and a pencil and begins to scribble down the reasons to save Dawn.

_1. Dawn has a boyfriend that she needs to get home to. _

_2. She has a family. _

_3. She's just a child. _

_4. I've met her. She's a survivor. _

_5. She has a life to live. _

_6. She wasn't born to die._

He pauses, then scribbles down the reasons to save Cato.

_1. There is a girl back home that he is in love with that he needs to get home to. _

_2. He has a family that rely on him. _

_3. He's only fifteen-years-old. Just a child. _

_4. He is most definitely a survivor. _

_5. He has a life to live. _

_6. And he, most definitely, wasn't born to die._

Then Haymitch is done, then he sees that it's even. He sighs and throws the paper against the wall.

He goes to get a drink, wondering when the world became so messed up that he has to choose between two innocent children's lives.

* * *

Seneca Crane watches the scene in front of him unfold. He's quite proud of himself, as this is his first year as Head Gamemaker. He has gotten much praise for it, and he accepts it with open arms. Why not? Given compliments and praise, why would he not take the praise? After all, if it's a compliment, an extra payment, or even a gift, he'll take it.

"Cue the first wave," says Seneca, smiling. On screen, the District 12 tributes are sleeping. Not for long.

"Yes, sir."

The first wave explodes out of the ground, slowly making it's way to the District 12 tributes. Due to his stirring, Seneca can tell that Cato is not fully asleep, so it's unlikely that it'll kill him. But Dawn Lucas is asleep. Fully out. She'll only wake up when the wave hits her, and when the water floods her mouth. There's a high chance that she'll die.

But Seneca does not intend on killing the District 12 tributes with the waves. No, he intends to lead them to the Careers who sit on the grass near the woods. They were about to set off hunting and what could be a better way to start a hunt?

The prey stumbling in front of the predators.

Seneca grins as he sets his plan in motion.

* * *

Cinna sits in front of one of the many televisions in his room on the District 12 floor. He doesn't have to stay here. But he feels if he leaves, something terrible will happen.

So, he stays.

And he watches as the two children he has come to care for end up in the grasps of the monsters.

* * *

Effie Trinket is thrilled. She has been attending some of the best parties in the Capitol, all thanks to Cinna and the little birds. Cinna said something about them being canaries, but Effie isn't that familiar with animals. Why become familiar with animals when there are lots of Capitol folk who are much more interesting?

When she arrives back at the Training Centre, she is shocked. Haymitch isn't drunk, nor has he passed out. He has a drink in his hand, but the glass isn't even half full. But then she sees the television screen and she gasps.

"What happened?" Effie demands. She scurries around to the couch in her bright yellow heels.

"They either tried to drown them..."

Effie gasps. "Or?"

"Or there will definitely be blood."

* * *

Peeta Mellark sits in the living room of his home, above his family's bakery. It's one of the few times he's allowed to stop baking and sit in that room. But it isn't exactly for a good reason. He's not sure if he wants to be in this room right now, or if he would rather be downstairs, in the bakery decorating the cakes to take his mind off of things.

His mother insists they watch the Games. He thinks she's heartless because she insists that they watch the Games, of all things.

He wants to watch them, but he doesn't at the same time. It's like a game in itself, trying to decide to watch or to not watch the Games. Some people watch it because they need to see what happens to make sure the tributes from their district are going strong. Others don't watch it because the cruelty of it all is too much and they decide to defy the Capitol in their own little way, by not watching no matter what the rules are.

Even if they don't notice.

Peeta has always stopped watching the Games on the second day, as the District 12 tributes are gone in the bloodbath on the first day. But he can't tear himself away from the screen, yet, he doesn't want to witness the horrors that will ensure.

"They're fighters, them ones," says his father.

"How would you know?" Mrs Mellark asks. It isn't cruel, it's the soft voice she uses only for him.

"Hunters," says Peeta.

"Hmm?" hums his eldest brother, Rye. "What did you say?"

"Well," Peeta starts, mumbling. "I know Cato's a hunter."

"How?" asks Jay, Peeta's other older brother. Jay is older than Peeta, but is younger than Rye.

"I've..." Peeta starts, muttering. "I've seen him with Katniss."

Silence falls upon the room, the only noises coming from the television. His father offers him a smile. "Well, does he make her happy?"

Peeta nods.

"Well then," he says. "We'll wish him the best of luck."

Suddenly, a whooshing sound emits from the television. Peeta watches as the wave sweeps Dawn and Cato away to the edge of the woods. Where the Careers are.

"Either," Dawn starts, coughing. "My dreams are really messed up, or we almost just died."

Cato spits out some water, heaving it out of himself. "Of course we almost died. We're in the Hunger Games, if you don't remember."

* * *

Madge Undersee has always been invisible. The girls at school from the Seam hated her for being the mayor's daughter, and the girls from Town hated her for the exact same reason. But Katniss never looked at her like that. Never acted like she was invisible, or hated her with a burning passion.

She was the person that showed Madge people weren't all bad.

But then, she met Cato.

Katniss hadn't introduced them or anything, she had just stumbled upon him once in the meadow and a few times in Town. He was a nice person.

She has also seen his secretive looks at Katniss. Madge has seen them from a distance, but she still knows that look. It's the look her father gave her mother. It's the extremely secretive look that Finnick Odair give Annie Cresta whenever the victors appear on the television. It's the look that many married couples give each other.

The look of love.

But of course, Katniss was obliviously to it. But something happened after Cato left. Her friend had a breakdown of sorts. It was deep in the woods. No one was supposed to be there. No one was supposed to see. No one was supposed to hear. But Madge did.

Madge can only describe what Katniss did as a moment of pure insanity.

One final act of madness.

_Where's Katniss going? _

_She knows she's in the woods, but why? _

_Katniss should have heard her by now. Her hunter-trained ears should have picked up the light footfalls behind. _

_But she didn't hear it. She hasn't heard it yet. _

_Madge sees her walk up to a tree, and she pulls a knife from the hunting jacket she is now wearing. _

_"Cato and Katniss," says Katniss. "Love at first sight." _

_Katniss trails her hands over the carving, tears forming in the corners of her eyes. Before Madge knows it, Katniss is sobbing on the ground. She doesn't know if she should approach her or not. So, Madge settles on observing her. Well, what are invisible people meant to do? _

_Then it happens. _

_Katniss lets out an ear-piercing scream. _

_A scream of pain. _

_A scream of sorrow. _

_A scream of loss._

It hurt Madge to know that her only friend was dying on the inside. Emotionally, of course. But the emotional damage could lead to physical damage. And that wouldn't end well for anyone. Because too many people need her. And her death would lead to countless others. Madge isn't sure that Katniss is stable. She probably isn't.

But if Cato came back...

_It's going to get better, it will_.

**[LINE BREAK BECAUSE THE REAL LINE IS F***ING WITH ME]**

Gale Hawthorne is confused.

Katniss is out of it.

Insane.

Lost.

Mad.

"Madly in love," his mother says.

"In love with someone else," he mumbles.

"OK," his mother sighs. "Son, I'm sorry, but she isn't right for you," she says.

"Then who is?"

"A girl who loves you back," his mother explains. "But you're her friend. And friends are always there for each other."

So Gale decides he's going to help Katniss get through it.

No matter how much it hurts.

* * *

"What's happening?" asks Clove, walking into the living room.

Her older sister - Lavender - sits on the plush purple couch, legs crossed. "Not much. The Careers have a new meal."

She pauses. "Who?"

Lavender grins. "District 12."

* * *

Louise Cole sticks the poster on the wall.

"You sure this will work?" asks Dabria.

"Positive."

* * *

Owen Bryson sits on the chair, right next to the stage in town square. The massive screen is illuminated by the sunlight cascading down upon it. It's brighter than usual which is slightly ironic; it's sunny and yet, children are going to be killed.

_Isn't that just lovely?_

Nuri didn't want to come to the square. He said 'I don't need people's pity'. Owen didn't ask again because, despite everything, Nuri is surprisingly like his older siblings and he doesn't want to be the reason his best friend has some weird emotional breakdown. He doesn't want to be the reason anyone has an emotional breakdown.

"Heard that's your friend's brother," says a young woman.

"Yeah," he nods.

"Why ain't he here?" asks a man Owen assumes is her husband.

"Well," starts Owen. "He said, and I quote 'I don't need people's pity'."

"Strong boy," says the man.

"It's in his blood," says Owen, pointing to the screen where Cato has just survived a Gamemaker attack.

* * *

Nuri Taylor doesn't like what he sees. He wishes Cato could hear him, so he could tell him to run, but he can't.

He just can't.

"Screw the Capitol!" he shouts out of an open window of his home.

He doesn't care if the Peacekeepers hear. It wouldn't matter.

Because nothing really matters anymore.

* * *

Ember Lucas would die right now.

Just like his sister.

**[LINE BREAK BECAUSE THE REAL LINE IS F***ING WITH ME. AGAIN]**

"Please, run Sunshine!" Ash Leote screams at his television screen.

"Ash," Tara Brooks shakes his shoulder. She's also Dawn's friend, but she doesn't know what Ash is going through.

"Please," he sobs.

"Ash..."

"No!" he yells, standing. "If she dies, I might as well die with her!"

* * *

Prim knows Katniss is almost over the brink.

Too far gone.

But maybe, just maybe, she can come back.

_She will_, Prim thinks. _But only if Cato does too_.

* * *

Katniss scolds Cato. For not having a better idea of his surroundings.

And now, he's being hunted.

"Idiot," she mutters.

But on the inside, she's dying.

* * *

Cato _hates_ Careers. He always has and he always will. He feels the need to keep that in his mind. Floating near the top. He hopes the Careers know of this hatred. He hopes they know that it isn't fear, that it is pure hatred. He just needs them to know that. He hates Lux the most. He knows that it isn't his fault, it's the Capitol's, but at this exact moment, he honestly couldn't care less. Especially not in the situation he's in now.

He climbs the tree without thinking, saying "Thank you, Katniss!" She needs to know.

When he reaches as high as he can get, which is pretty damn high, he looks down. Dawn is close behind him, making sure to stay on the branch below his so there isn't an excessive amount of weight on it, so it won't plummet to the ground. The Careers stand at the bottom of the tree, every form of anger across their faces.

"Typical," says Lux. "The birds from Twelve go into the tree."

Cato notices one other thing though. The crazy boy from Six is standing with the Careers.

"Oh it's hilarious, isn't it?" says Dawn.

"I think it is," shrugs Lux.

"Well, I thought it was funny when I found out Satin died," states Dawn. "What about you, Cato?"

"Yeah, that was funny," he agrees.

"You think it's funny?" asks Lux.

"Yeah," Dawn nods. "It would've been cooler if she'd been beaten to death with a chair, though."

Cato snorts and smirks. "What?"

"What?" asks Dawn in an innocent tone of voice. "You've never hit someone with a chair before?"

"No."

"Oh, it's fun, you should try it sometime," said Dawn.

"He won't get to try it," states Victor. "Because he's not leaving the arena."

Cato knows what Dawn's doing. It's a mix between stalling and yanking their chains.

"Oh, well, he could, actually," she calls down. "He has a knife, he could just carve that branch into a tiny chair and throw it at your tiny, fat midget head."

Victor growls.

"You know," said Dawn, smirking. "There's a lot more psychopathic midgets around these days, I mean, what's up with that?"

"Can little birdy shut up?" Victor shouts.

"Did he just say what I think he did?" says Dawn. "Did he just call me a _little_ birdy? He's a lot smaller than me!"

"Dawn," Cato laughs. "Just-"

"Your name's ironic too," Dawn states. "'Victor'? You're probably going to die in the next few day days."

"That's it!" shouts Victor. He leaps onto the lowest branch and even that one wavers with the newly added weight. Dawn snickers. Victor continues to ascend the tree, hanging tightly to the thin branches. He obviously thinks that since Cato can manage to get all the way up, near the top of the tree, he can too.

He's obviously unbelievably optimistic.

The branches get thinner and thinner, and Cato wonders if Victor might reach them. But then, Cato realises that he has his sword. He doesn't believe he could take all of the sadistic idiots all at one, but Victor alone couldn't be that hard, right? No, not at all. He would be easy to kill, all alone, without the help of his fellow Careers.

Cato grins when he hears the branch snap, watching Victor plummet to the ground. When Victor hits the ground, Cato hopes he's broke his neck. But he hasn't, as he gets back to his feet, looking at Dawn with nothing other than pure, utter hatred. Cato's not even the least bit surprised when Dawn says something that makes Victor, if possibly, even more angry.

"I hope that hurt!"

"It felt wonderful!"

"Aren't you just a ray of sunshine," says Dawn.

Victor looks like he's about to pounce on the tree when the District Six boy - Trev, Cato thinks - speaks up. "Look, we can't get up that tree, but the rats-"

"We were birds a few minutes ago!" shouts Dawn.

"-Will eventually die of dehydration."

Calixte looks up at the tree. "Me and Victor will start a fire." She grabs Victor's hand and they scampered off into the trees.

"Aww!" exclaimed Dawn. "Look Cato! They're holding hands!"

Lux goes off, mumbling something about getting a blanket from the Cornucopia.

Trev looks up at them and all of the laughter dissolves. It goes. Just with that one look.

"So," Cato practically spits. "Joining the Careers, huh? That's pretty low."

"It's kill or be killed, last time I checked," states Trev.

"You're from an outlying district," says Dawn. "Every one of the outlying districts hate the Career districts with a burning passion. You've betrayed your own district."

"They'll understand if it means I live," he explains.

Cato rubs his eyes. "You won't live."

"Yes, I will, I'll live and-"

"They'll kill you first," says Cato. "When the alliance is over, they'll kill you first."

Silence. That's what Cato receives.

"You know we could kill you right now," says Dawn.

Trev nods. "Why don't you?"

"Because we aren't monster," explains Cato.

"How'd you know?" asks Trev.

"Because monsters are incapable of love," says Dawn. "And we both have someone back home who we love."

"No offence," says Trev. "But you don't seem like people who could be in love with someone."

"Well," says Cato. "A lot of people are like that. Half the boys in my district are in love with the girl I love. She's just so oblivious she doesn't notice."

Trev raises an eyebrow. "And she noticed you?"

"Eh," Cato scratches the back of his neck, chuckling. "I kind of had to tell her and then she told me and-"

"Cato, shut up," says Dawn. "Point is, it's called lying. I'm not normally like this. I'm having a feeling Cato isn't like this at home, right?"

"I'm not," says Cato. "But the arrogance is still there."

"Okay," says Dawn. "Careers are monsters. We aren't," Dawn could hear footsteps approaching. "Sleep on it."

And he does. And Trev questions every decision he has made in the arena. He wonders if he is a monster.

He believes he is.

But then there's that question. 'What to do with Cato and Dawn?'

* * *

**I am so so very sorry for not updating in ages! I am using my only valid excuse; my keyboard on my laptop doesn't work. Literally, I am typing this on my iPod in an email to send to myself to get off my laptop. I think it's a good reason.**

**Oh, thank you for the great positive feedback it's really appreciated and I'm so glad you care enough to review!**

**By the way, I don't have school for the week - it's like the Halloween holidays, so we get a week off - but I might not be able to write. I got really hard homework. I'm talking math here, people. Circles. I'm good at everything else just this. Probably because I couldn't hear the teacher over how EPIC I was at the time. No, I was sitting with my friend, so...yeah.**

**I hope you liked this chapter! Thanx for the awesome reviews, favs and thank you for reading! Please review!**


	23. Chapter 23

**Shake It Out**

_Regrets collect like old friends _  
_Here to relive your darkest moments _  
_I can see no way, I can see no way _  
_And all of the ghouls come out to play _  
_And every demon wants his pound of flesh _  
_But I like to keep some things to myself _  
_I like to keep my issues drawn _  
_It's always darkest before the dawn _  
_And I've been a fool and I've been blind _  
_I can never leave the past behind _  
_I can see no way, I can see no way _  
_I'm always dragging that horse around _  
_Our love is questioned, such a mournful sound _  
_Tonight I'm gonna bury that horse in the ground _  
_So I like to keep my issues drawn _  
_But it's always darkest before the dawn _  
_Shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, ooh whoa _  
_Shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, shake it out, ooh whoa _  
_And it's hard to dance with a devil on your back _  
_So shake him off, oh whoa _  
~Shake It Out, Florence + The Machine

* * *

_Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend_  
_Somewhere along in the bitterness_  
_And I would have stayed up with you all night_  
_Had I known how to save a life_  
~How To Save A Life, The Fray

* * *

**Shake It Out**

**Chapter 23: Colours**

The fifteen-year-old boy doesn't know how he reached this moment. Sitting in this chair, looking down at all of the cheering Capitol citizens. To him, it doesn't feel real. It feels like he's trapped in some horrid nightmare that he'll never wake from. To him, the Capitol is a mere blip on his radar. Because all he sees now is colours. That's all. Many people would think that, to him, the Capitol citizens would look like a spectrum of flamboyant colours.

Walking rainbows, one may say.

_They should look like rainbows, shouldn't they?_ Cato thinks. But they don't. No one looks like a person to him anymore. When he first woke up, he could barely tell the difference between the room and Haymitch. But now he can tell the difference. The people are more prominent than the objects. The colours the objects take are more dulled. Creatures flash like the headlamps on the Capitol citizens' cars.

Though, the humans are brightly coloured. They're all the same, yet so different. Similar, yet worlds apart. To Cato, sometimes they look fluffy and pink and he can tolerate them. The only Capitol citizens that always appear pink to Cato are Effie, Cinna and Portia - who spends more time with Cinna. Those are the only citizens of the Capitol who don't turn a different colour. Sometimes, rarely, Cato sees Effie flash a different colour.

However, when that happens, he tries to remind himself that, even if she doesn't show it, she misses Dawn too. She has also suffered the loss of many children over the years, just like Haymitch. Her clothes and makeup and chirpy voice are the only things that are different from anyone else. She hurts too. The injustice upsets her too. The cruelty that Cato and Dawn endured upsets her. Cato knows she tries to remind herself that she's a Capitol citizen, and she's the escort of the tribute that won.

Cato knows that she believes she should be joyous.

Despite this, her smiles don't seem as real anymore. There was always a little bit of force in her smiles before the Games, but after, the smiles never reach her eyes. Not even when Cato woke up, the smile seemed false and empty. Just as they do now. _It's hard for her as well_, Cato reminds himself.

He catches sight of a Capitolite in the crowd that does not cheer, that does not scream or screech. The screams and screeches and cheers remind Cato of the horrid sounds the crowds made in the interviews before the Games. Screeching and cheering, screaming for their blood.

They already got that. They already got the blood.

He stares at this person. He thinks it must be a woman, but he's not sure. He's not sure if this, this thing is a human or a rather large feline. Idiot, he thinks. It's a Capitolite. This woman looks like a tiger with actual whiskers. It's surgical enhancement gone wrong. Her skin has been pulled back tightly and tattooed with black and gold stripes. Her nose has been flattened until it barely exists. Cato has seen a few Capitolites with whiskers, but none so long.

He wonders why she's there. Even the Capitol can't find her look attractive. _Maybe she was invited_, Cato reasons. Because why else would someone who looks like this woman be here? Cato looks at her, and she looks back. But she is starting to look pink to him. Not like the other colour all of the other Capitolites are. Not a deep red. She's pink now. Because she understands. The look she's giving him basically says, _You hate it. And it'll just get worse._

There's one thing he's noticed. The chairs in the audience are labelled with names. When one of his eyes twitch, she stands. In the centre of the chair's back, printed in gold italics, is the name Tigris. _Tigris_, he thinks over and over, trying to think of a face - a more human rather than feline - to match the name. Tigris does what Cato thinks is a smile as he mouths her name with raised eyebrows. Who...is...Tigris...?

Then it hits him. Tigris. Some Capitolite working in the Games. Some of the earlier Games, of course. He would've remembered her easier if she had worked in some of the more recent Games. A stylist, he thinks. So this is what happens to stylists even the Capitol think are grotesque. They end up being shoved out of the public eye. To never be seen again. But she has been seen again. By a new victor, no less.

She sits back down and Cato's eyes scan the crowd. They're all one colour. All red. All of the blood is on their hands. He knows. This new colour sence he's gained helps him identify the people who are good, or at least don't like the Capitol. But when anything is red, an alarm goes off in his head. Red alert. Red, just like the blood that was spilled. Just like the gruesome amount of blood left on what used to be Lux's body. The blood that was leaking from Trev's neck. The blood that sprung out of Electra's back.

The terrible, horrifying blood that pooled out of Dawn's stomach.

He wants them to pay for what they've done. He wants to murder them with his bare hands. All of them. All of the people who glow red are evil and deserve death. No more, no less. They don't deserve a merciful death either. Some of them, the things they have done to some victors, deserve the most sadistically cruel deaths ever. Their deaths are wishes. Wishes that need to be granted. Wishes that, if he could, Cato would gladly grant.

They are now the prey, and Cato is the predator.

And he will rip them apart like the monster he has become.

**_It's only dark in the shadows-_**

_"It's just us, Birdie," says Lux._

_"Don't you think I know that?" Cato snarls, ready to lunge for him._

_"Believe it or not, I don't want to kill you," says Lux with a shake of his head._

_"Well I don't believe it," says Cato._

_"I can't kill you," says Lux. "Because I'm weak, and I'm bleeding out. If I kill you, which I could, it wouldn't take long for me to follow." He looks out at the water. It's gotten closer and the water is all around the Cornucopia. The freak fish with incredibly sharp teeth are jumping and snapping their jaws. They have no pupils; their eyes are fully white. Their scales are slimy and bright blue, so they glow and stand out. "Not even the Capitol could save me."_

_"Are you trying to get me to kill you?" asks Cato._

_Lux lowers his head and shakes it furiously. "At the Academy, they-"_

_"I know what they do there," says Cato. "I was going to go there."_

_"Yeah, but you only know about the training," says Lux with a shake of his head. "It's almost the same in District One."_

_Cato raises his eyebrows, but he doesn't lower his sword._

_"They teach us to not have feelings so we're mindless drones. Pawns in their Games," Lux sniffs. "It worked for some time, but it doesn't always work."_

_Cato thinks Lux might be crying._

_"Then I met her," says Lux. "Satin."_

_Cato's eyes widen. "I thought you didn't know her."_

_"You have to do that," says Lux. "So the other tributes wouldn't try and use her against me. But she's gone. And my life isn't one that's worth living." Lux raises his head and looks at the sky. "Is that what you want! Happy now? She's dead!"_

_"She died a while ago," says Cato._

_"It makes no difference," Lux growls. "She's dead. And she's never coming back."_

_It's silent for quite some time. The only sounds being the wind and the monstrous fish in the blue waters below them._

_"Do you want to be a monster?" asks Lux._

_"...No."_

_"Then do the humane thing," says Lux, "and kill me."_

_Cato doesn't know how it happens. He doesn't want to do it, but he does. He swings his sword at Lux's neck, and for a moment, Cato sees something. He would've missed it if he wasn't looking. A small hint of a smile is on Lux's lips as Cato's blade connects with his neck. Just before it cuts, he sees Lux's lips form a word. He thinks that word is thanks._

_"Ladies and gentlemen, the victor of the seventy-second Hunger Games, Cato Taylor!"_

_He barely hears it. His ears ring and all he sees is red._

_His ears ring with one word, and one word only._

_Monster._

**_-No light can break through-_**

"So Cato," says Caesar. "How does it feel, to be a victor?"

_Horrible, I want you dead, I will rip your throat out and serve it to the dogs. _"It feels great."

"Now," says Caesar. "What was it like? When Dawn passed?"

Cato's smirk fails and anger is all across his features. _Red alert, red alert, red_-

"It was heart-breaking to watch," says Caesar. "I was almost in tears."

They don't know what it feels like. To have something like that be ripped from you in an instant, gone. Leaving you hollow and empty.

"Well, if it makes you feel better I was in tears," says Cato.

Light, sorrowful chuckles emit from the audience.

"She was light an older sister to me in there," says Cato.

"Nothing romantic?" asks Caesar.

"No," Cato spits. "I didn't like her in that way. I'm in love with a girl back home, and she was in love with another boy. And for all we know, he's committed suicide because of her death."

_And we all know who's fault it is_, Cato thinks with a scowl.

**_-Nothing but evil hallows-_**

_"NO!" Cato screams as he sends the knife flying at Trev's neck. Why did they trust him? Why? He just did that. Why did the believe that he'd changed? Cato wishes he'd made Trev's death much more slow and painful, but it's too late for that._

_Trev's already dead._

_"Dawn! Dawn! Dawn!" Cato chants as he kneels beside the dying girl. Blood pools out of her stomach._

_"Cato," whispers Dawn. "Is Trev dead?"_

_Cato can only nod in answer._

_"Good," whispers Dawn._

_Cato holds onto Dawn's hand like it's a lifeline. As if it's Cato who's dying instead of her._

_"Win," whispers Dawn._

_"But-"_

_"I'm dying Cato," says Dawn. "There's nothing else to do."_

_"But-"_

_"There's some letters I gave to Haymitch," says Dawn in a weak voice. Every second she grows paler and paler. "Get them and give one to my mother, one to my brother and one to my father. Then there's two more. Give one to a girl called Tara brooks. And the other, give it to Ash Leote."_

_"Okay," says Cato. Tears pool in the corners of his eyes and he doesn't care if the whole country is watching._

_"And don't let them die," whispers Dawn._

_Then it's silent. He places his free hand on her pulse on her neck. Nothing. Gone._

_He starts screaming._

_He doesn't care if the Careers come. They can find him. He'll gladly kill them in cold blood. It isn't their fault Dawn died, but he will blame the next person he sees. They will pay. There are no more boundaries. Those no longer exist._

_Because there's no point having boundaries when they're more like guidelines anyway._

**_-Here to come and take you-_**

"Well," Caesar clears his throat. "I apologise, Cato. I didn't mean to cross any lines."

_You don't want to know what would have happened if you crossed a bigger line_, Cato thinks.

"Anyway," says Caesar. "What was it like when they announced that you were victor?"

The words are back. It took him some time to stop the word from returning into his mind But it's back, and it's not going away. _Monster, monster, monster_.

"I couldn't believe it," Cato fiddles with the sword pin on his yellow jacket. "I didn't think it was real."

"Hmm," Caesar says. "I can see why."

It's like a wedge between reality and non-reality.

"Now," says Caesar. "What was the arena like?"

"Horrible," Cato says before he can stop himself. "It was like...a nightmare that never ended."

"You've changed so very much, Cato," says Caesar.

"Well," says Cato with a smirk. "I've got my reasons."

"You do," agrees Caesar. "You do."

**_-But the darkness wants to play-_**

_The blood oozes out of Electra's back as Calixte drags the knife through her skin. Cato wants to kill her, so much. But he restrains himself; Dawn's waiting back at camp with Trev. Then again, if he doesn't leave quickly, Dawn might think the cannon is his._

_So he runs as Victor puts his hand on her shoulder, telling her, "Enough."_

**_-And the shadows always win-_**

"How about that girl back home?" Caesar asks encouragingly. "What was her name again?"

"Katniss," Cato unwillingly responds.

"Well, are you excited to see her?" asks Caesar.

"Yes, of course," says Cato. "I love her."

"You do," says Caesar. "And she loves you?"

"Yes," says Cato. "She told me she loved me."

"How long have you loved her?" asks Caesar.

Cato doesn't know how to answer.

"For years," says Cato. "Probably since I met her, and I just didn't know it then."

"Aww," says Caesar along with the audience. "Isn't that sweet, folks?"

More cheers.

"And you'll get to see her soon," says Caesar.

"I will," says Cato.

And he will because, no matter what happened in that damned arena, he loves her, and he's already proven that he'll do whatever it takes to get back to her.

**_-As one day you will all pay-_**

_"It's not like we couldn't live in the woods," says Cato, at the age of fourteen._

_"We couldn't," says Katniss, at the age of thirteen. "Well, maybe you and me, but our families couldn't."_

_Cato raises an eyebrow and say, "I know my family could."_

_Silence._

_"Point taken," says Katniss. "But my mother and Prim wouldn't make it in the woods. Mostly Prim."_

_He chuckles, "Yeah, I guess so."_

_"Dabria and Nuri would be okay, though," says Katniss._

_They lie in the meadow, their normal meeting place. With her head on his chest, he isn't sure there's been a time where he's been happier. He plays with the end of her braid and brushes loose strands from her face behind her ears._

_"I know," says Cato. "So would you."_

_"Of course!" she says with a smile that's only for him._

_"Being cocky doesn't help anyone, Flower," he says._

_"I could say the same for you, Blondie."_

_"That isn't nice," says Cato with a pout._

_"Aww," says Katniss in a baby-like voice. "Did wittle Cato get his feewings hurt?"_

_"Shush Flower," Cato closes his eyes and pulls her closer. "Time to sleep."_

**_-For everything bad, for all of your sins-_**

"Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, Cato Taylor of District 12!" shouts Caesar. "The seventy-second Hunger Games victor!"

_**-But you are all pawns-**_

_"You've got to make them think you were just a kid that knew no better," says Haymitch. "You didn't mean to be rebellious; you're innocent."_

_"I'm guilty of a crime of not being what they want me to be," says Cato._

_"Cato, they aren't happy with you."_

_"Well, I'm not exactly happy with them either."_

_**-All pieces in their Games-**_

"Good job Cato," says Cinna.

"Thanks," says Cato. "Maybe you shouldn't have reminded me to be honest."

He walks away from the pink blurs behind him and dives into his room and cries until he can no more.

_**-You will be ripped and torn-**_

_"Winning isn't some great prize like they tell the kids in District 2," says Cato. "It's the worst punishment known to man."_

_"We might as well be dead, son," says Haymitch. "But you do have a family."_

_"Really?" says Cato, angrily. __"You thought you had a family, then when you got home, they were dead."_

_"It's different-"_

_"No it's not," says Cato. "They've probably killed my mother, Mrs Everdeen, Dabria and Nuri, Prim...they've probably killed Katniss."_

_"That ain't true," says Haymitch._

_"How is it not?" asks Cato. "Oh...because there's much worse to come, isn't there?"_

_Haymitch remains silent._

_"I should've died," says Cato. "Because she would've lived her life happily. Got over my death, married Gale. She would be happy if I had died. And we both know it."_

_Cato storms off before Haymitch can tell him it isn't true._

_**-And never to be the same again.**_

* * *

**Well, that's it. That's just a short chapter I whipped up today, after drinking 7up. I should drink it more, it gets the inspiration going. So...yeah. And I SKIPPED IT. I'm gonna have flashbacks that give you a better idea. And just FYI, didn't skip the Games because I'm LAZY. I did it because it's losing it's Catoniss and I'm gonna bring it back. **

**Have you guys heard Ho Hey by the Lumineers? Amazing song. And just randomly writing this now because it's been advertised a few times, have you guys heard about this movie Jennifer Lawrence is in called 'Silver Linings Playbook'? I MUST SEE IT. AND HO HEY WAS THE BACKGROUND MUSIC FOR THE TRAILER.**

**Thanks to _CatnipGirlOnFire_, _Tintinn_ (guest), _Kato45_, _thepinkmartini_, _sundragons9_, _vampiregoth28_ and _Dramione-Fan 17_ for reviewing chapter 22. Thanks, you guys. You're so awesome for reviewing. Every chapter, I'll thank who reviewed the last one, so...I'm putting that out there...yeah.**

**Thanks also to everyone who read and faved and followed this story. It helps me continue to write, and I'm glad you guys do care. PLEASE REVIEW!**


	24. Sequel Notice!

**Hi! I'm just here to say that I've completed this story, and there's a sequel up. It's called Seven Devils. It's less fluffy than Shake It Out, but I hope you'll like the sequel. It should be up sometime today!**

**Please read it! I hope you like it!**


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